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Trump Gets Massive Post-Impeachment Victory As USMCA Passes House

   DailyWire.com
US President Donald Trump gestures during a Keep America Great Rally at Kellogg Arena December 18, 2019, in Battle Creek, Michigan.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump got one of the biggest political wins of his presidency on Thursday, which comes just hours after Democrats’ partisan impeachment, as the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) has officially been passed in both chambers of Congress and now heads to Trump’s desk to sign.

Pelosi, who stalled passing the deal for over a year, held a vote on it just hours after Democrats pushed through partisan articles of impeachment against Trump.

USMCA passed in the House in an overwhelming 385-41 vote with 38 Democrats opposing it. Far-left Democrat Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) all voted against the trade agreement, which experts have said will create tens of thousands of new jobs for American workers.

In a statement, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said, “House passage of the USMCA with such huge bipartisan support is a major milestone and shows just how much President Trump is successfully changing U.S. trade policy so it works for the benefit of American workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses. The USMCA is expected to create between 176,000 and 589,000 new American jobs and substantially increase economic growth. The International Trade Commission’s analysis shows that USMCA will have a more positive impact on our economy, jobs and wages than any other U.S. trade agreement ever negotiated.”

The New York Times noted that among those who voted to pass USMCA in the House included “opponents of the original NAFTA deal and others known for a fierce aversion to trade pacts — joined the majority of the caucus in giving their approval to their agreement.”

Lighthizer said that the USMCA represented the new “gold standard” in U.S. trade policy and was a massive win for the Trump administration that will be the template of future trade agreements in the future as it prioritizes the American worker.

“It will create tens of thousands of new jobs—many importantly in manufacturing—and increase export opportunities for our farmers, ranchers and businesses. President Trump is keeping his promise to replace the failed NAFTA with a far better trade agreement,” Lighthizer concluded. “This is the first-ever trade coalition of workers, farmers, Republicans, Democrats, business and agriculture groups, organized labor and much more. I would like to thank the many members of the House and Senate for getting us to this point. I would also like to acknowledge the leadership of the business community, agriculture groups, and organized labor who have supported the agreement.”

The new trade agreement includes provisions that discourage the outsourcing of American jobs and raises the requirements for how much of a car must be manufactured in North America to avoid being hit with tariffs.

“The USMCA is the first multi-country trade deal to be considered by Congress since the U.S. negotiated a free trade agreement with a group of Central American nations in 2005,” The Washington Post reported. “Since then, trade has turned into a torturous issue for the Democratic Party. In the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton was forced to renounce her support for a major Pacific Rim trade deal that President Obama had hoped to get through Congress. Obama and Pelosi also battled dramatically over trade when he was president and she was minority leader, making her alliance with Trump on a new version of NAFTA all the more striking.”

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