© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau deliver a statement on the signing of a new free trade agreement in Buenos Aires, on Friday on the sidelines of the G20 Leaders' Summit.
Friday's signing starts the clock on what could be a months-long process to approve the deal in Congress.
North American leaders formally signed their new trade agreement Friday, marking the end of 15 months of contentious talks between the U.S., Canada and Mexico - and the beginning of what could be months of fierce debate between the Trump administration and Congress.
The signing, which took place on the sidelines of the G-20 summit,
shifts the onus onto each country's legislatures to approve the agreement before it can actually take effect. And that could be a problem in the U.S., where some Democrats have already been opposing the labor and environmental provisions in the pact,
now known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement or USMCA.
Despite a push by a handful of Republican senators to vote on the agreement during the lame-duck session,
procedural hurdles make
it almost certain there won't be a vote until sometime next year when Democrats are controlling the House. That's jeopardizing President Donald Trump's chances of fulfilling what has been a signature pledge of his presidency.
Trump expressed confidence Friday that the pact would sail through Congress. "It's been so well-reviewed, I don't expect to have very much of a problem," he said as he stood onstage in a hotel conference room next to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Trump called the trade deal "a truly groundbreaking achievement" before the three leaders sat down at a table and signed it.
Comment: 'Mad dog' diplomacy? Rattle them, then be nice, then provoke then anew? All towards... what? World peace?!