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| House Democrats say they back Trump’s revised trade deal with Canada and Mexico, citing recent changes | House Democrats say they back Trump’s revised trade deal with Canada and Mexico, citing recent changes |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| House Democrats took credit Tuesday for rewriting key parts of President Trump’s new North American trade deal to include new protections for workers’ rights and to scrap a provision they said would have led to high prescription drug prices. | House Democrats took credit Tuesday for rewriting key parts of President Trump’s new North American trade deal to include new protections for workers’ rights and to scrap a provision they said would have led to high prescription drug prices. |
| “There is no question that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA. It is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking hours before representatives of the United States, Mexico and Canada are expected to sign the revised deal at a meeting in Mexico City. “We’re declaring victory for the American worker.” | “There is no question that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA. It is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), speaking hours before representatives of the United States, Mexico and Canada are expected to sign the revised deal at a meeting in Mexico City. “We’re declaring victory for the American worker.” |
| Analysis: Trump is reshaping U.S. trade policy, but not at the scale he long promised | Analysis: Trump is reshaping U.S. trade policy, but not at the scale he long promised |
| The revised North American Free Trade Agreement now appears very close to winning congressional approval, moving President Trump much closer to securing one of his campaign pledges. Helping sway Democrats, the nation’s largest labor federation backed the compromise. | |
| “We demanded a trade deal that benefits workers and fought every single day to negotiate that deal; and now we have secured an agreement that working people can proudly support,” said Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO. | “We demanded a trade deal that benefits workers and fought every single day to negotiate that deal; and now we have secured an agreement that working people can proudly support,” said Richard Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO. |
| Trumka called the revised accord a “vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017.” | Trumka called the revised accord a “vast improvement over both the original NAFTA and the flawed proposal brought forward in 2017.” |
| The agreement is the first to contain “enforceable labor standards,” which will include inspections of suspect manufacturing sites in Mexico, he said. | |
| But labor is not united. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, one of the AFL-CIO’s major affiliates, said the agreement fails to halt the flow of American jobs to Mexico. | |
| “U.S. workers have been waiting over 25 years for a responsible trade deal that puts their interests ahead of corporations who are fleeing our shores,” said IAM President Robert Martinez, Jr. “They are still waiting.” | |
| In Twitter posts Tuesday, Trump hailed the breakthrough. | In Twitter posts Tuesday, Trump hailed the breakthrough. |
| “Trade Bill is looking good. It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA. Good for everybody - Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions - tremendous support,” Trump tweeted. “Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!” | |
| He later wrote that it was “Looking like very good Democrat support for USMCA. That would be great for our Country!” | He later wrote that it was “Looking like very good Democrat support for USMCA. That would be great for our Country!” |
| The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups also announced backing for the compromise between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration. | |
| “It’s good to get this thing finished and out of the way and not have uncertainty about our North American market,” said Rufus Yerxa, head of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents companies such as Amazon, General Electric and Mastercard. | |
| Democrats said they had secured specific changes in the text signed by Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada one year ago. The Democratic revisions eliminated a provision in the deal that would have granted new drugs called biologics 10 years of protection from generic competitors, and added tougher environmental standards to the treaty. | |
| “We made this agreement,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. | “We made this agreement,” said Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. |
| Under the rewritten deal, if Mexico fails to hit specific targets in its labor reform program, U.S. enforcement actions will be triggered. New labor attaches will be dispatched to Mexico to monitor compliance. | |
| The new enforcement mechanism also provides for “facility-based enforcement of labor obligations within a rapid timeframe,” according to a Ways & Means Committee fact sheet. That was an apparent reference to factory inspections Democrats had sought to block goods produced in violation of agreed labor rules from entering the U.S. | |
| Pelosi conceded that she had failed to strip from USMCA legal protections for Internet companies, which absolve them of responsibility for user content published on their web sites. | |
| The speaker said her members raised the issue after she had already promised Lighthizer she would limit her requests to four subjects: labor, environment, biologics and enforcement. | |
| “I lost,” she said. “It’s a real gift to big tech.” | |
| The revised trade deal — called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — represents an overhaul of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. | The revised trade deal — called the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement — represents an overhaul of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. |
| It would create new intellectual property protections, require more North American parts to be used in automobiles to qualify for zero tariffs, open the Canadian milk market to U.S. farmers and create new rules for e-commerce. It would also boost wages, benefits and safety rules for workers and put in place updated environmental protections. | It would create new intellectual property protections, require more North American parts to be used in automobiles to qualify for zero tariffs, open the Canadian milk market to U.S. farmers and create new rules for e-commerce. It would also boost wages, benefits and safety rules for workers and put in place updated environmental protections. |
| The changes would impact a wide range of industries, including agricultural, pharmaceutical, automotive and manufacturing. | The changes would impact a wide range of industries, including agricultural, pharmaceutical, automotive and manufacturing. |
| U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer and Trump son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner are expected to be in Mexico on Tuesday to help secure the pactalong with Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s deputy prime minister. | |
| Senate Republicans are preparing meetings for Lighthizer to brief senators on the details of the proposed agreement, including one for members of the Finance Committee later this week and another tentatively for all GOP senators next Tuesday, according to people familiar with the planning who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans were yet to be finalized. | Senate Republicans are preparing meetings for Lighthizer to brief senators on the details of the proposed agreement, including one for members of the Finance Committee later this week and another tentatively for all GOP senators next Tuesday, according to people familiar with the planning who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans were yet to be finalized. |
| Pelosi met privately Monday evening with several of her party members who have negotiated with Lighthizer for months to revise the initial trade agreement struck with Mexico and Canada for terms more favorable for Democrats. The House Democrats leaving the meeting declined to confirm a deal but signaled one was imminent, with Neal indicating that lawmakers could see “verification” of an agreement sometime Tuesday afternoon. | Pelosi met privately Monday evening with several of her party members who have negotiated with Lighthizer for months to revise the initial trade agreement struck with Mexico and Canada for terms more favorable for Democrats. The House Democrats leaving the meeting declined to confirm a deal but signaled one was imminent, with Neal indicating that lawmakers could see “verification” of an agreement sometime Tuesday afternoon. |
| Neal, who was on a flurry of phone calls with Pelosi and Lighthizer over the weekend, also said the House should be able to hold a floor vote on the trade deal by the end of the year. | Neal, who was on a flurry of phone calls with Pelosi and Lighthizer over the weekend, also said the House should be able to hold a floor vote on the trade deal by the end of the year. |
| “If it’s where we think it is and so forth and the pieces that we thought were critically important . . . are there and get a chance to look at that, then I will be satisfied,” said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), a key figure in the party’s left flank who had also been negotiating with Lighthizer. | “If it’s where we think it is and so forth and the pieces that we thought were critically important . . . are there and get a chance to look at that, then I will be satisfied,” said Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), a key figure in the party’s left flank who had also been negotiating with Lighthizer. |