[CTC] Finance members say Lighthizer, not Ross, needed to move forward on NAFTA consultations

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Two articles on NAFTA timing and the Congressional notice process below…

Inside US Trade

Finance members say Lighthizer, not Ross, needed to move forward on NAFTA consultations
March 22, 2017
Key members of the Senate Finance Committee this week said the process for consulting with the administration on negotiating objectives for NAFTA – and for notifying Congress by triggering a 90-day clock before official talks start – likely will not move forward without a confirmed U.S. Trade Representative in office.
 
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS), a senior member of the Finance panel and chairman of the Agriculture Committee, told Inside U.S. Trade on March 21 they are not planning to meet with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross or the acting USTR, Stephen Vaughn, to discuss NAFTA while President Trump's USTR nominee, Robert Lighthizer, remains unconfirmed.
 
Ross, Vaughn and other USTR officials on March 21 met with the House Advisory Group on Negotiations <https://insidetrade.com/node/158037> – a group of lawmakers established under the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority law – to talk about priorities for NAFTA discussions with Canada and Mexico.
 
Attendees after the meeting told Inside U.S. Trade that while it was helpful to hear the administration's views on the issues, the sit-down with Ross and Vaughn did not produce a time line or specific negotiating objectives.
 
Sources said the administration has not scheduled any meetings with the Senate Finance Committee or the Senate Advisory Group on Negotiations (SAGON) – both of which must be consulted before the president can formally send the notification to Capitol Hill.
 
“I think it's held up by a desire to have a USTR,” Hatch said when asked why the Finance Committee has not yet met with Ross or Vaughn. “We could do it without [Lighthizer], but I think we'd like to have a confirmed USTR.”
 
That sentiment was echoed by Roberts, who said the administration cannot move forward without Lighthizer in place because “he is the lead negotiator.”
 
“It would be most helpful if we had the lead negotiator on trade on board. He appeared before the Finance Committee, he was well-received, we ought to vote on him and get him into office and have him participate,” Roberts said, adding that he would not reject a meeting with Ross or the acting USTR if it was scheduled.
 
Asked whether the administration could notify Congress before Lighthizer has been confirmed, Wyden said “I don't see how.” Wyden said he “can't see the argument” for meeting with Ross and Vaughn, either.
 
“I mean part of this is their policies on trade have been contradictory; in a number of instances they've been almost incomprehensible,” Wyden said. “So you're asking logical questions about the consultation process that I and Sen. Hatch and [Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin] Brady said was a very specific process.”
While both the Senate Finance Committee and SAGON have to be consulted before a notification can be sent, some members, citing the administration's eagerness to get the process started, suggested it still may happen before Lighthizer's confirmation vote.
 
“It's going to be hard to do it without him, but we're going to need to move ahead,” Hatch said, adding that “it's up to the president” to decide on timing of the notice.
Section 105(a)(1)(B) of TPA says the president, “before and after submission of the notice,” must “consult regarding the negotiations with the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate, such other committees of the House and Senate as the President deems appropriate, and the House Advisory Group on Negotiations and the Senate Advisory Group on Negotiations.”
 
One source said the meeting between administration officials and HAGON fulfilled that TPA requirement.
 
USTR Deputy Chief of Staff Payne Griffin told Inside U.S. Trade that while to date there have been no meetings between Vaughn and Ross and the Finance panel or SAGON, “USTR has been involved in all the meetings” that have taken place with key senators.
 
Those include meetings involving White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro as well as meetings between Finance Committee staff and other USTR personnel.
 
Sources told Inside U.S. Trade that Navarro, in a Feb. 15 meeting with the Finance panel <https://insidetrade.com/node/157591>, said the Trump administration does not believe TPA-required consultations with Congress on NAFTA will have to “begin all over” when a USTR is confirmed.
 
Some sources speculated that the committees may be hesitant to move forward with consultations with the Commerce secretary given their jurisdiction over USTR and not Ross's agency, which is overseen by the Senate Commerce Committee.
 
Ways & Means trade subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell on March 22 said “it would be a problem” for him if the administration went ahead on NAFTA without the USTR in place, but added that he is “hopeful” about the administration's bipartisan approach to date – something he said he hopes will continue.
 
Asked if he noted that in the March 21 meeting with Ross and Vaughn, Pascrell said “I didn't bring it up purposefully because I don't want to throw barriers in the way. I don't want that perception; I'm trying to be open-minded about it.”
 
Brady said he expected Lighthizer to be confirmed “in the very near future, so the whole trade team will be in place.”
 
“The discussions we're having with Secretary Ross and his team I think are really critical, that they're reaching out early, you know, and we're following the trade rules that Congress put in place,” he added.
 
After the March 21 meeting, Neal told Inside U.S. Trade he pointed out to the administration officials that the Senate “is awaiting consultation,” and added that “there was no formal response to that, nada.”
 
Neal also said Ross, in prior meetings, told the Ways & Means ranking member that the administration would notify Congress on NAFTA around March 15, and then changed the time line to the end of March. – Jenny Leonard (jleonard at iwpnews.com <mailto:jleonard at iwpnews.com>)
 
 =======

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-22/trump-sets-stage-for-nafta-talks-as-ross-meets-with-lawmakers <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-22/trump-sets-stage-for-nafta-talks-as-ross-meets-with-lawmakers>
Trump Sets Stage for Nafta Talks as Ross Meets With Lawmakers

by Andrew Mayeda and Shannon Pettypiece 
March 22, 2017, 6:54 PM EDT 
Commerce Secretary Ross satisfies advance consultation rule 
Ross has said Congress will be officially notified soon 
The Trump administration is poised to trigger a renegotiation of Nafta as Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross met with key lawmakers to satisfy a final step required beforehand.

Ross on Tuesday laid out a preliminary strategy for a Nafta renegotiation to a group of House members he is required to consult with ahead of issuing a formal 90-day notice that the administration intends to revise the agreement, said people familiar with the matter who discussed the meeting on condition of anonymity. The group includes Kevin Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as well as Richard Neal, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

Ross was vague about what the U.S. will seek from Mexico and Canada in the talks, said one of the people.

Under the law that gives the president so-called fast-track authority on trade pacts, Trump must give Congress 90-days’ notice that he intends to revise an existing agreement. Before starting talks, he must lay out the administration’s goals and consult with the Ways and Means committee, as well as the Senate Finance committee, the two congressional committees with jurisdiction over trade.

Ross told reporters on March 10 that the administration planned to give the 90-day notice in “the next couple weeks.” The Commerce Department didn’t immediately reply Wednesday to a request for comment.

Mexico’s Moves

Mexico announced on Feb. 1 the start of its own consultations on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which created one of the world’s largest free-trade zones. The Mexican government will hold talks with businesses and other stakeholders, its government said.

The approaching negotiations come at a tense time between the U.S. and Mexico, whose president, Enrique Pena Nieto, canceled a visit to Washington in January after Trump doubled down on promises to make the country pay for a border wall.

Any of the three countries can withdraw from Nafta on six-months’ notice. Trump has said he would pull out if his counterparts aren’t willing to renegotiate it.

Trump’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, raised <https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-03-15/u-s-sees-mexico-as-part-of-regional-powerhouse-navarro-says> hopes last week that the U.S. might take a more conciliatory approach toward Mexico. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Navarro said he hoped the U.S. could ally with Mexico to form a “mutually beneficial regional powerhouse” that would benefit manufacturers and workers on both sides of the border.

Navarro, head of the White House’s National Trade Council, said tightening rules of origin to help U.S. manufacturers will be a key goal of the talks.
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