Bizarro world: Midterms offer little clarity on fate of USMCA, tariff dispute
WASHINGTON — If the midterm elections were supposed to wipe clear the uncertainty of tariffs, trade and other smudges on the window into Canada-U.S. affairs, well, have a look at the bizarro world of politics in the United States of America.
A Democratic majority in the House of Representatives was “very close to complete victory” for President Donald Trump. The election is both over and not over, thanks to vote-counting disputes in Florida, Georgia and Arizona. There’s a new trade deal, but the White House and Canada are still staring each other down over steel and aluminum.
So good luck getting odds on when, or if, the new Congress will ratify the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
“We don’t know yet,” Ohio trade lawyer Dan Ujczo said of how new House members are likely to vote when Capitol Hill takes up USMCA, something that he fears could now be a year or more away.