Key Lawmaker Says Administration Has Missed NAFTA 'Deadline'

Congress will now not likely have time to approve any NAFTA 2.0 deal this year, according to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas."Yeah I think so," Cornyn said when asked if getting the trade pact through Congress was not likely now in 2018. “It looks like they are kicking it over to 2019. I wish it had been handled earlier.”This comes on the heels of House Speaker Paul Ryan, R., Wis., setting a May 17 "deadline" for the notification to go to Congress to get it done yet in calendar 2018, only to later say that there was some "wiggle room" on that front.But now that the calendar has flipped to June, the comments by Cornyn are the latest sign that getting any completed NAFTA 2.0 deal through Congress yet this year is something that will not happen.The Trump administration has to notify Congress of its intent to sign a trade deal 90 days in advance of doing so. Once signed, then the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has to do a study on the impacts of the trade plan, and can take up to 105 days to do so.