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| - 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. A fast-tracked vote in the Senate was scheduled for later Friday, according to the government leader in the House of Commons, Pablo Rodriguez. Already approved by the US and Mexico, the trade deal will then 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 giving their nod in December. amc/ft
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