The current news coverage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations has touched heavily on the tight deadlines set around reaching an agreement. There is, however, a lot of unnecessary confusion—even among those who follow this closely—about what might happen next and what deadlines are triggered once an agreement is reached. To help you understand the process and timeline for approval of a free trade agreement, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP has created a TPA Timeline to clarify TPA requirements and timing.

Using our interactive calendar, you can choose a possible date for the President to notify Congress about his intent to enter into an agreement and then see the several other deadlines that will occur, such as the earliest date by which the President can sign the agreement or when Congress might be able to start considering it. All you have to do is select a possible trigger date, and then the deadlines are automatically calculated. Please click here to try out the TPA Timeline.