USMCA Negotiations Have Graduated Beyond Working Group

House Democrats and the administration have gotten close enough on what the edits to the new NAFTA should be that they have narrowed differences to three, “maybe two and a half," the Ways and Means Committee chairman said Nov. 21. Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., had just exited a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Neal said that at the beginning of the meeting, there were five issues separating them.

"The conversation again today was spirited, but it was, I think, candid, and the toughest issues in bargaining, based on a long career, they're always the last ones," Neal said. "Always."

Pelosi, who agreed the Democrats and Lighthizer are narrowing their differences, said before the meeting that USTR knows the new NAFTA has to be enforceable. "Just think of yourself as a worker out there, who's been affected by trade. Felt very betrayed by NAFTA. We have a responsibility to drastically improve the situation," she said at her weekly press conference. "Not just NAFTA with sugar on top, but a change in the fundamentals of it. So that you have enforceability. I think if we can get to that place, we can have a template for trade agreements that will serve us well." She said a template is needed because "globalization is a reality. It is not going away, it is a fact."

She said that if Mexican workers need more leverage in their workplaces, because "the lower they get paid, the more jobs go to Mexico, and the more the migration issue just festers, and again, we haven't helped American workers."

Neal said that one of the changes to enforcement that union stakeholders seek is to give future administrations less discretion on when to bring a dispute with a trading partner. "The standard criticism of these trade agreements ... is that they have not been enforced. And we always let other intermediary issues get in the way of enforcement," he said. "We think that on this deal, we build a template for the future, that you can't just arbitrarily walk away from because there's some other foreign policy dilemma."

When asked if the USTR is telling Democrats that he thinks Mexico won't accept some of the enforcement proposals they have, Neal replied, "No, he's not saying that yet." Neal said that both Canada and Mexico will be briefed on the deal reached between USTR and House Democrats before such a deal would be announced. He said that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not rule out changes to the text.

Neal said that the last rounds of negotiations will be among this trio, not the wider working group. He said they'd stay at it through Thanksgiving week, even though he and Pelosi will not be in Washington.

Although last week Pelosi said resolution of concerns was imminent (see 1911140039), in her press conference this week, she suggested that even after agreement is reached with USTR, there is a lot of leg work before a bill can come up for a vote. She said freshmen ask her "When's the bill coming?" and she tells them that it will take time to write, in addition to conversations with Canada and Mexico. When asked whether there would still be time for a vote in 2019 if agreement is reached the week after Thanksgiving, she replied, "I'm not even sure if we came to an agreement today, that it would be enough time." However, Neal said it could still get a vote this year.