CBJ — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Bloomberg News there is virtually no chance lawmakers will vote on the USMCA agreement this calendar year.

The new free trade agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico replaces NAFTA.

McConnell says there is no time to push the USMCA to the floor of either the the Senate or House of Representatives before the end of the year, so it can be ratified by lawmakers.

Also, the final details of the new agreement have yet to be worked out. Trade officials are hoping to have the specifics ironed out by the end of November.

The U.S. will be preoccupied with the midterms and other domestic matters and so a realistic time-frame for its passage should be in the first quarter of 2019.

@CanBizJournal