NAFTA 2.0 Needs Changes to Win House Majority, Says Ways and Means Chairman

The House Ways and Means Committee's outgoing chairman expressed skepticism that the new North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico can clear the House without revisions. Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, who will pass the gavel to ranking member Richard Neal, D-Mass., in January, expects Ways and Means “will be working to continue to improve the agreement until there's bipartisan support for it," he said last week. Brady thinks “the 'yes' votes for this agreement will come from lawmakers who want not just an improved NAFTA, but they want a seamless one,” with no supply-chain “disruption” in sales of “more American agriculture and technology," he said. “That desire for a seamless transition to a new agreement is both the smart thing to do for the economy, and where lawmakers will want to be."