A two-day hearing scheduled for Thursday and Friday by the International Trade Commission in Washington offers a roadmap to issues lawmakers will consider, including the impact of the renegotiated deal on agriculture, industry and data privacy.
Representatives from auto, agriculture, tech and retail, as well as labor and environmental advocacy groups, are scheduled to testify. Two Democratic lawmakers, Michigan Congressman Sander Levin and New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell, are scheduled to speak as well.
"So much is unknown about what the Democrats want right now, but that will become more clear as the new members get sworn in," said Welles Orr, senior international trade adviser at Miller and Chevalier, and a former Assistant US Trade Representative under President George H.W. Bush.
Trump, along with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, have agreed to sign the deal before December 1 when power changes hands in Mexico and president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador takes office. It's not yet clear exactly when or where the leaders plan to do the signing ceremony. All three are due to gather at the annual G20 world leaders summit in Argentina at the end of November.
The ITC will have until 105 days after the signing, or mid-March, to deliver its report to Congress on the new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as USMCA. But there is no legislative deadline for ratification.
With Democrats taking control of the House in January, the President will need support from the opposition party for the deal to pass.
Some Democrats have been hesitant to throw their support behind the USMCA, which was first announced at the end of September. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Richard Neal, who's set to take over the House Ways in Means Committee next year, has said "the bar for supporting a new NAFTA will be high."
Trump's own negotiators have expressed optimism that Democrats would get on board with the deal, in part due to improved labor standards and environmental protections that have been worked in.
"I think it's going to pass. And I think it's going to pass with a substantial majority," US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said at Trump's Rose Garden news conference announcing the deal.
The new trade agreement was precipitated by Trump's decision to get rid of the original NAFTA, which he's called the "worst trade deal" ever signed. Negotiators from all three countries began talks on updating it more than a year ago.
The draft deal, agreed in September, differs from the 1993 NAFTA deal in several key ways. With respect to labor and environmental standards, it requires that 40% to 45% of car and truck parts be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour. Also, Mexico has committed to recognize workers' right to collectively bargain, and the three countries agreed to enforce rights recognized by the International Labor Organization.
The USMCA lists a number of issues that the three countries have committed to addressing, including over-fishing, illegal wildlife trade and logging.
Labor groups like the AFL-CIO and environmental groups like the Sierra Club have expressed concern about how those new standards will be enforced -- and some Democrats agree.
"The enforcement is non-existent...You can have nice words but [if] there's no way to enforce them, it doesn't really do anything," said Wisconsin Rep. Mark Pocan, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, earlier this week at an AFL-CIO event.
Changes to enforcement could be made after the deal is signed, either in the legislative approval or in a side deal between the countries, Orr said. He added that he expects the deal to ultimately pass Congress.
"There will be fits and starts, but I bet they can find a way forward," he said.
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