United States

The USMCA trade agreement, the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford, and the Supreme Court confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh

At the end of August 2018 Mexico and the United States announced their agreement on the terms of a new trade agreement that preserved much of NAFTA while also introducing a number of significant changes. On September 30 Canada also agreed to join the new accord, which was branded the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA). Most of the agreement, which still required approval from the countries’ legislatures, was not set to go into effect until 2020.

In October the Senate confirmed Kavanaugh as the replacement for Kennedy but not before the confirmation process was interrupted by accusations that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted childhood acquaintance Christine Blasey Ford when they were teenagers in Maryland. Two other women also came forward with accusations: a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University accused him of a separate act of sexual assault, and a third woman declared in a sworn statement that Kavanaugh had attended parties at which gang rapes took place. Following impassioned testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee by both Kavanaugh (who denied all three allegations) and Blasey Ford, a supplemental investigation of Blasey Ford’s allegations and those of Kavanaugh’s Yale classmate was conducted by the FBI. Limited in duration and scope (dozens of witnesses recommended by the accusers were not contacted), the investigation produced a confidential report that the Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman declared had found “no corroboration” of the allegations. The Senate then narrowly confirmed Kavanaugh’s appointment.