The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday, Jan. 28, edition that it is not a good sign when countries cannot even agree on what to call a trade deal. The Globes Barrie McKenna writes that the Americans say it is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. The official Canadian title is the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA. Mexico is apparently just thankful to have a deal by any name. Most everyone else just calls it NAFTA 2.0 or the new NAFTA, because an updated North American free-trade agreement is essentially what it is. Nearly four months after the three countries completed negotiations, the deal with many names is facing an increasingly uncertain future. Ratification was supposed to be at the top of the agenda for the incoming U.S. Congress. However, the partial U.S. government shutdown and a lack of direction from the White House have left the deal in limbo, with no clear timeline for passage. The danger now is that a vote in Congress may be pushed back so far that it runs smack into the 2020 election season. That could make the deal a political football, and much trickier to get past Democrats, who now control the House of Representatives.