USMCA can pass before August, congressman who met with Trump says

House Ways & Means Trade Subcommittee ranking member Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) says he’s hopeful Congress will pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, also known as the “New NAFTA,” before August of this year.

“The idea is to try to get this done before August. I think we can,” the Congressman said just moments after meeting with President Trump at the White House on Tuesday. “We have a lot of momentum.”

In a first on FOX Business interview on “After The Bell,” Buchanan described Trump’s meeting with Republican lawmakers, where the president made the case for speedy passage of the USMCA.

“It’s $1.3 trillion of economic activity between the U.S., Mexico and Canada,” Buchanan told Connell McShane.

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The Congressman was also optimistic that tariffs across the board would eventually be reduced, pointing out that in his home state of Florida, a full 1 in 5 jobs are “trade-related.”

Buchanan pointed out the deal needed a majority of Republicans on board as well as at least 30 Democrats, suggesting the updated NAFTA was “too big to fail.”