Mexican Senate approves changes to USMCA regional trade deal

Senators approved the changes to USMCA, which was signed more than a year ago to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), by a vote of 107-1.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gestures during his daily news conference at National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico in this file photo.

Mexico's Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the revised U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade deal that includes tougher enforcement of worker rights and the elimination of a patent provision for biologic drugs.

Senators approved the changes to USMCA, which was signed more than a year ago to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), by a vote of 107-1.

In a rare show of bipartisan and cross-border cooperation in the Trump era of global trade conflicts, top officials from Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the new overhaul of the quarter-century-old NAFTA on Tuesday.

Democrats controlling the U.S. House of Representatives had insisted on major changes to labor and environmental enforcement in USMCA before bringing it to a vote in the United States. It is not expected to be ratified in the United States or Canada until early next year.

Once it passes into law in the three countries, USMCA will encompass $1.2 trillion in annual trade across the continent and support 12 million U.S. jobs and a third of American agricultural exports, its backers say.