House Democrats are backing away from their demand that the Trump administration get its trade partners to renegotiate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.
Some Democrats are arguing that the necessary changes to the deal can be made at the margins. Others still claim that the deal must be rewritten but that reopening talks won’t be necessary to do so.
The shift comes as pressure is mounting on all sides to wrap up the deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, this summer. Key Democrats met privately with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Tuesday, though no progress was reported. Working groups of lawmakers set up by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have also begun meeting with Lighthizer’s staff.
Democrats, including Pelosi, have argued that the USMCA lacks sufficient enforcement mechanisms and have previously called on the administration to reopen talks with Mexico and Canada to fix the problem, something both countries have categorically ruled out and the White House has rejected as well.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, who chairs the Ways and Means subcommittee for trade, told reporters Tuesday that only minor changes were needed. “It doesn’t have to be a renegotiation of the agreement by the three countries … So, no I don’t think we are talking about starting from scratch,” he said.
The lawmaker said that Democrats were themselves getting anxious to get the deal passed. “There is no interest on the part of the leadership for this to bleed into 2020,” he said, adding that he didn’t think it could happen before Congress’ August recess, either.
Other Democrats are still demanding that the deal be rewritten, though they are now claiming that this can be done without reopening the talks between the three countries.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, a leading Democratic critic of the deal, said Thursday that she wasn’t backing down on changing the USMCA. ”Making changes to the deal’s implementing language and side deals isn’t sufficient. This is about making changes to the underlying text,” she told the Washington Examiner.
DeLauro indicated, however, that the changes could be made without three-country talks being reopened and the deal being completely renegotiated. Instead she and like-minded Democrats want the Trump administration to press Canada and Mexico to agree to a few modest changes to the current text and implement those changes independently. Such a process would avoid having to set up full talks, which could result in too many changes to the deal.
The distinction is subtle but has a precedent, said Lori Wallach, executive director of the nonprofit Public Citizen’s Trade Watch and a DeLauro ally. The U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, which President George W. Bush negotiated and Colombia ratified in 2007, followed a similar process. The deal was not taken up by the U.S. Congress before the Bush administration ended, however. Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, then got a modified version of the deal through Congress, and Columbia agreed to pass additional legislation to modify its deal to conform with the U.S. one.
In the case of the USMCA, that would mean that Mexico would likely have to send the deal through its legislature a second time. “This is why Canada hasn’t passed USMCA through its parliament yet,” despite having been introduced there last month, said Wallach. “They’re waiting to see what changes will be made.”
