Democrats Say USTR Will Have to Do More Than End ISDS in NAFTA Rewrite

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has said he hopes to reshape NAFTA in a way that appeals to both Democrats and Republicans. Some of the most prominent critics in the House of Representatives on NAFTA said April 5 that while they appreciate some of his positions, he has a long way to go to convince them.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who has opposed NAFTA since it was passed, said a rewritten NAFTA she could support would need to end the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) system, require strong rules of origin for autos and other manufactured goods, change Mexican labor law in a way that can be enforced over time, and provide "a clear path to close the U.S. trade deficit. It's about ending the outsourcing of U.S. jobs."

Lighthizer has made eliminating ISDS one of his platforms, and has called for stronger rules of origin for autos. He, too, says NAFTA led to too many jobs moving from the U.S. to Mexico. According to published reports, Lighthizer has proposed that work on autos that receives higher wages -- perhaps $15 an hour -- should be credited more heavily for the North American content quota (see 1803290020). When asked if that's something she would see as a reason to vote for NAFTA, DeLauro hedged. "I would want to find out the impact of that and what that means," she said, and complained that Lighthizer has not been open enough with Congress so that she can know how the negotiations are shaping up.

DeLauro also said what language she has seen about labor standards in Mexico is inadequate to get Democratic support. She and Progressive Caucus Co-Chairman Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said that their general opposition to Trump doesn't mean they can't work with him on trade.

"Trade was probably the reason he won our state," Pocan said. "We have some areas where we have common interests." He also warned that a revised NAFTA needs to appeal more to liberal Democrats than it does to Republican orthodoxy in order to satisfy Trump voters. "If he has a deal that [House Speaker] Paul Ryan can agree with, I can guarantee it is probably not going to be what the people who voted for him expected." DeLauro agreed. "We have lots of disagreements with the Trump administration at the same time we are cognizant that the president is forcing a long overdue reconsideration of trade policy. We can’t lose an opportunity to do what is right by American workers."

One of the members of the caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., represents Seattle and Tacoma, where trade is immensely important to the local economy. She said that standing up for worker-centric trade deals is not anti-trade. "None of us are opposed to trade," she said. "You can’t stop trade any more than you can stop migration, and you wouldn’t want to."