Congress

House Ways & Means Democrats this week singled out a lack of “May 10” agreement language and a host of enforcement issues in questioning whether the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement will lead to “meaningful” environmental improvements.

John Murphy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called the work “no easy task” and said it likely was “harder than it was with past trade agreements.”

A group of steel importers is asking the Supreme Court to review its challenge to the constitutionality of the Section 232 statute weeks after the Court of International Trade ruled that President Trump's imposition of steel tariffs based on national security was legal.

“We need a trade policy that works for workers, not just the CEOs of large corporations.”

House Ways & Means Committee Democrats on Thursday questioned whether the labor standards in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement would lead to “meaningful change” in Mexican labor practices and called for a strong enforcement mechanism to ensure the new labor standards are followed.

The Finance chair says he's “not sure” the report was compiled “in a professional way,” adding, “It may have some shortcomings and that’s why we haven’t seen it.”

Following a briefing from the AFL-CIO on Wednesday, Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) said a significant number of Democrats feel tweaks must be made to the text of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and called on the three countries to better explain why re-opening talks “would be so difficult.”