Canada approves North American trade deal, suspends parliament over coronavirus

OTTAWA: Canadian lawmakers hastily approved a North American free trade deal Friday before announcing parliament would be suspended until late April over concerns about the new coronavirus.

Lawmakers cut short debate to move to a vote on the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement -- known in the United States as USMCA -- which was unanimously approved.

Shortly afterward, the Senate also approved the pact in a fast-tracked vote, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told a news conference in Ottawa, calling its approval by both the lower and upper houses of parliament "a positive milestone for Canada." Already approved by the US and Mexico, the trade deal will now only need the signature of Governor General Julie Payette, the representative in Canada of Queen Elizabeth II, to be fully ratified.

The pact replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and binds nearly half a billion consumers in a single market. US President Donald Trump had forced Canada and Mexico to the negotiating table in August 2017 to rejig an agreement he derided as "the worst trade deal ever made," claiming it led to a shifting of US auto industry jobs to Mexico, where labor costs are cheaper.

At the end of marathon talks, the USMCA was signed by the three parties in November 2018, on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Buenos Aires. But US Democrats, holding a majority in the House of Representatives, later demanded changes to the deal before ultimately giving their nod in