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A Senate Appropriations Committee spending bill approved this week instructs the Commerce Department to publish the non-confidential aspects of the administration’s Section 232 report on auto and auto parts imports and contends that the president cannot unilaterally decide to terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Mexico agreed to allow full potato access for avocado access. Unfortunately, Mexico has failed to honor its obligation.”
Despite the launch of an impeachment inquiry this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday implored fellow Democrats to stay focused on moving the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement forward in talks with the administration, according to a key lawmaker.
House Democrats working with the Trump administration on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement say a newly announced impeachment investigation into the president is unlikely to derail USMCA in Congress.
And the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley (R-IA), warned Democrats against mixing the two issues.
A House working group tasked with negotiating U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement issues with the administration shares the AFL-CIO’s concerns over Mexico’s budget proposals for labor reform in 2020, Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) told reporters on Tuesday.
“There is still an opportunity to address the unfair treatment of cattle and beef in this trade agreement, which has resulted in economic harm over the years to cow-calf producers, backgrounders, and feedlot operators.”
The Trump administration should abandon its threat of Section 232 tariffs on Japanese autos and auto parts, which are crucial to the Japanese economy, to secure a deal with Tokyo, Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said on Tuesday.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has proposed changes to language that led to a 2017 U.S. loss in a labor case involving Guatemalan labor practices in his pitch to House Democrats working on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Inside U.S. Trade has learned.
“We do not believe a provision requiring parties to adopt a Section 512-style safe harbor system of the type mandated by Article 20.89 should continue to be included in future trade agreements.”
A group of House Democrats next week will present U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer a response to the agency’s attempt to address concerns with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA) said on Friday, adding that the two sides had agreed to “intensify” negotiations.
“We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said.
The Commerce Department and Mexican tomato growers on Thursday signed a final agreement that will suspend a U.S. antidumping investigation into fresh tomatoes from Mexico, despite reservations from the growers about an included inspection mechanism.
Members of the House Democrats’ U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement working group plan to meet again with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Friday, with some lawmakers suggesting progress was being made while noting that the negotiations are far from over.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said on Thursday that Congress must pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement by Thanksgiving or the deal won’t be ratified at all, putting the onus solely on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to bring an implementing bill to the House floor.
A suspension agreement covering fresh tomatoes from Mexico, reached by Mexican growers and the Commerce Department last month and expected to be signed this week, is still facing criticism from both Mexican producers and domestic importers concerned about the increased border inspections the deal would mandate.
“There's a lot of uncertainty in this industry. And this negotiation is looking for certainty for the next four years for these workers.”
More than half of the group’s CEO survey respondents said the administration’s trade policies had negatively impacted their companies’ sales.