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Jan 21, 2020 5:58 PM -

Canada to ratify new NAFTA next week following U.S. Senate approval: Trudeau

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to media while meeting with Manitoba Premier, Brian Pallister during the Liberal Cabinet Retreat at the Fairmont Hotel in Winnipeg, Monday, Jan. 20, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Mike Sudoma

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will move next week to formally approve North America's new, long-delayed free trade pact.

Trudeau says the government will introduce a ways and means motion Jan. 27 when Parliament resumes, and will table legislation to ratify the deal two days later.

Trudeau says millions of Canadians depend on stable, reliable trade with their largest trading partners.

That will effectively remove the final legal hurdle in preserving continent-wide trade after President Donald Trump foisted the acrimonious renegotiation of the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement on Canada and Mexico in 2017.

Last week, the Republican-led U.S. Senate passed its so-called implementation bill of the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The Liberal government had been waiting for the U.S. to formally ratify the pact before introducing its own bill, after Mexico ratified the deal back in June.

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