North American Free Trade Agreement

After an enforcement-centric meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday, several U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement working group members said a contentious “panel-blocking” issue with the deal's dispute-settlement approach remained unresolved.

Business groups flocked to Capitol Hill this week to push for passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement ahead of a lengthy congressional recess, when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce plans to boost efforts to promote the deal on lawmaker's home turf.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), the House chief deputy whip, said on Wednesday that Congress would pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement this year, hinting at a significant number of Democrats likely to support it.

A group of private-sector witnesses is slated to appear before the panel on July 30.

Concerns that a controversial de minimis provision could be included in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s implementing legislation continue to vex House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who have raised the issue in recent talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.

As House lawmakers get set to visit Mexico City this weekend, House Ways & Means trade subcommittee chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) told Inside U.S. Trade he plans to get a “better perspective” on a roadmap issued by the Mexican government last month outlining labor reform implementation.

Congressional Democrats want to ensure a vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement does not “languish into next year,” House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) told reporters on Tuesday after meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

The legislation would require a trade deal to establish a labor secretariat to get fast track treatment.

The letter calls for amending the deal to reflect “the balance achieved in the bipartisan May 10, 2007, agreement.”