Congress

“If they do recommend it, I will not think it’s the right thing to do.”

House Ways & Means members expect to meet this month with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to discuss the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, with some mulling a public hearing to address both USMCA and China.

Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Tuesday that while he supports efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs, he does not back changes to pharmaceutical provisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Democrats have suggested.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday that his department has been telling the White House and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico should be lifted.

“You can have the best language on any subject in a bill, but if you don't have the enforcement provisions very strongly spelled out – not as a sidebar, not as a side letter, but central to the treaty – then there's a problem.”

The use of Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to enforce provisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer suggested this week in a meeting with key senators, could fuel retaliation and muddle the chances that the deal is approved by Congress, analysts said.

A new study says the U.S. economy could lose nearly a million jobs over the next few years if the administration raises tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25 percent.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday suggested that Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 could be used to enforce provisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, senators told Inside U.S. Trade.

“This bipartisan legislation preserves this trade tool while properly placing the national security designation at the Department of Defense and expanding the role of Congress in the process.”