Sen. Sherrod Brown Sherrod Campbell BrownSenate Democrats release report alleging Trump admin undermined fair housing policies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Emboldened Democrats haggle over 2021 agenda MORE (D-Ohio), a likely presidential candidate in 2020 and a leading voice on trade issues, predicted Tuesday that President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE’s update of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will stall in Congress.

“I don’t see evidence that it’s going to pass,” Brown said at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. “I don’t now what Republicans are going to do. I know that there are few Democrats in the Senate that support it.”

Brown says he can’t support the deal unless its labor protection provisions are substantially strengthened.

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The new accord is supposed to fulfill President Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to replace NAFTA with a better trade deal.

Brown calls it NAFTA 1.6, alluding to what he sees as the many similarities between the landmark 1994 North American treaty and Trump’s trade agreement.

Brown, who served 14 years in the House, said the new pact will have a tough time passing the lower chamber.

“It’s a big uphill fight in the House, too,” he said, citing private conversations with fellow Democrats in the House. “Labor’s overwhelmingly against it still.”

The new trade deal is supposed to receive accelerated consideration in Congress under Trade Promotion Authority, also known as fast track, and could pass each chamber with simple majority votes.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare House lawmakers reach deal to avert shutdown Centrist Democrats 'strongly considering' discharge petition on GOP PPP bill MORE (D-Calif.) could circumvent fast track authority by passing a rule on the House floor.

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That would set up a standoff with Trump, who could threaten to pull the U.S. out of NAFTA in order to gain leverage over lawmakers for approval of the new accord.

Asked about the possibility of Trump taking that approach, Brown said “that would be really stupid.”

Brown had been in conversations with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Robert (Bob) Emmet LighthizerWhiskey, workers and friends caught in the trade dispute crossfire GOP senator warns quick vote on new NAFTA would be 'huge mistake' Pelosi casts doubt on USMCA deal in 2019 MORE, a fellow Ohioan born in Ashtabula, on a weekly basis during the height of the trade talks with Mexico and Canada in hopes that he could persuade the administration to include stronger worker protections in the deal.

“He thinks that he’s done the best he can, and I assume he has, but it just simply isn’t good enough for most Democrats, if not almost all of us,” Brown said of Lighthizer.

“It’s not good enough for labor, it’s not good enough for organized labor, it doesn’t work for workers. It doesn’t work for Mexican workers, in my mind,” he added.

Brown led opposition to NAFTA when he was a House lawmaker in 1993 and 1994, marshaling members of his freshman class to oppose then-President Clinton’s signature trade initiative.

He now argues that U.S. manufacturing would be healthier today if Clinton had insisted on stronger labor provisions for Mexico more than 20 years ago.

“If we had done the same construct as we did our domestic economy, there’d be a lot more manufacturing jobs in our count, because in part we’d be exporting to those countries that could afford to buy things,” Brown told reporters Tuesday.