On Tuesday, January 7, 2020, the Senate Finance Committee
approved the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) by a vote of
25-3. The markup of President Trump's replacement to the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provided several
surprises, at least from a traditional trade policy
perspective. For instance, the USMCA received the support of
Sherrod Brown (Democrat-Ohio), a stalwart union backer that had
voted "no" on every free trade agreement since he was
elected to Congress in 1992, and the agreement received more
Republican "no" votes (two: Senators Pat Toomey
(Republican-Pennsylvania) and Bill Cassidy (Republican-Louisiana))
than Democratic "no" votes (one: Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (Democrat-Rhode Island)).