[CTC] NAFTA notification: What’s happening and when

Mon May 15 07:56:36 PDT 2017

Two articles below…

INSIDE US TRADE
Lighthizer to hold NAFTA talks with Congress, attend APEC trade ministers meeting in his first week

May 14, 2017 
Robert Lighthizer, slated to be sworn in as U.S. Trade Representative on Monday afternoon, will have a busy first week in office, meeting with congressional committees of jurisdiction to discuss the administration’s negotiating objectives for NAFTA and traveling to the two-day APEC trade ministers meeting in Vietnam, sources told Inside U.S. Trade.  

Lighthizer is expected to discuss a second draft of the administration’s notice to Congress on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in meetings with the House Ways & Means and Senate Finance committees, as well as with the House Advisory Group on Negotiations and the Senate Advisory Group on Negotiations, these sources said.  

After Congress and the administration agree to a final version, the president will officially notify lawmakers of his intent to begin talks with Ottawa and Mexico City 90 days after the date of the notice. That notice, sources said, is expected to be sent the week of May 22 -- meaning negotiations with the two NAFTA partners will not begin until late August.  

A first draft of the notice <https://insidetrade.com/node/158124> was sent to lawmakers in late March after acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen Vaughn, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other administration officials met with the Ways & Means Committee <https://insidetrade.com/node/158037> and the House Advisory Group on Negotiations, or HAGON. Those meetings -- as well as meetings with Senate counterparts -- are required under Section 105(a)(1)(B) of the Trade Promotion Authority law.

The Senate meetings have not yet been held because senators have demanded that such consultations, in accordance with TPA, be conducted by a Senate-confirmed USTR. After both chambers passed a statutory waiver for Lighthizer to lawfully serve as USTR, the Senate confirmed him on May 1, with broad bipartisan support <https://insidetrade.com/node/158692> -- 128 days after his nomination was announced.

Sources said that despite the March meetings on NAFTA with Vaughn and Ross, Lighthizer will also meet with the House committees, whose members have “demanded” to consult with the Senate-confirmed USTR because the Senate panels have insisted on it.

The first NAFTA draft notice initially was shared only with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and his counterpart in the House, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), drawing the ire of Democrats on both panels <https://insidetrade.com/node/158110>.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer, when asked about the first draft in March, said it was “not a statement of administration policy <https://insidetrade.com/node/158132>.”

Also on Lighthizer’s agenda for this week is his first appearance on the world stage at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam. Trade officials from the 11 Trans-Pacific Partnership signatories will gather on the sidelines of the APEC meeting to discuss a path forward for the agreement without the U.S.

Vietnam has asked New Zealand -- which last week became the second country, after Japan, to ratify TPP -- to co-chair the TPP-11 meeting <https://insidetrade.com/node/158673>, and New Zealand trade minister Todd McClay said last week that the countries “have agreed to continue to evaluate options under TPP that would deliver benefits for our citizens and the region,” adding, “New Zealand is committed to keeping our options open.”

One of the outstanding questions about NAFTA -- something sources said Lighthizer likely will be asked about in meetings with lawmakers this week -- is whether the Trump administration is pursuing a trilateral framework or hoping to negotiate two bilateral deals.

Trump, Ross and other administration officials have said no decision has been made on their preference for the structure of the final deal -- though Ross has repeatedly floated the idea of “two symmetrical bilaterals” as an alternative to a trilateral.

The March draft NAFTA notice said the administration was seeking to “initiate negotiations related to NAFTA and its architecture,” adding that “it is premature to say what final form the negotiated outcome will take.” -- Jenny Leonard (jleonard at iwpnews.com <mailto:jleonard at iwpnews.com>)

http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-trade/2017/05/nafta-notification-whats-happening-and-when-220315 <http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/morning-trade/2017/05/nafta-notification-whats-happening-and-when-220315>
NAFTA notification: What’s happening and when 

By Megan Cassella <http://www.politico.com/staff/megan-cassella>
05/15/17 10:18 AM EDT

With help from Doug Palmer and Adam Behsudi

NAFTA NOTIFICATION: WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHEN: Robert Lighthizer’s swearing-in ceremony, scheduled for 3 p.m. today at the White House, caps a months-long nomination and confirmation process, and finally gives President Donald Trump a complete trade policy team. But even as the White House is chomping at the bit to launch its long-promised renegotiation of NAFTA, procedural boxes must be checked before things can get started.

Lighthizer’s immediate task will be meeting with four congressional committees: House Ways and Means and Senate Finance, which have jurisdiction over trade in their respective chambers, as well as an advisory panel in each chamber comprised of the chairman and ranking member of multiple committees that deal with trade. Each of those meetings is mandated under Trade Promotion Authority, passed in 2015.

Three of the four committees had meetings earlier this year with administration members, including Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and acting U.S. Trade Representative Stephen Vaughn. But all four panels are pushing to have a meeting with Lighthizer himself once he’s sworn in, Morning Trade has learned. A House aide told us the Ways and Means meeting will take place on Wednesday, while a second aide said the so-called House Advisory Group on Negotiations will meet with Lighthizer as soon as Wednesday, though it could come later in the week.

Only once those meetings are held can USTR send Congress a formal notification of its intent to reopen NAFTA, which kicks off a 90-day period before U.S. officials will get to sit down with their counterparts from Canada and Mexico. The administration sent to the Hill a draft <https://www.politicopro.com/trade/story/2017/03/trumps-nafta-goals-a-small-shift-from-obama-policies-154789> of the notification in late March, but the meetings this week will be in part aimed at gathering lawmakers’ input on what negotiating priorities they have going into the talks, and then incorporating their feedback into the letter. If the letter is sent sometime in the next week or two, that will put the start date for negotiations at mid- to late August.

Oval office check-in: How might the president himself be feeling about this whole process? “We have a problem because we have a ridiculous provision in NAFTA that we have, you know, to go on the fast track,” Trump told <http://www.economist.com/Trumptranscript>The Economist last week. “Fast track is the slowest track I’ve ever seen.”

IT’S MONDAY, MAY 15! Welcome to Morning Trade, where your host wants to send a belated Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. Any trade tips or news to start the week? Let me know: mcassella at politico.com <mailto:mcassella at politico.com> or at mmcassella <http://twitter.com/mmcassella>.

THE VIEW FROM THE NORTH AND SOUTH: As for the other parties involved in a NAFTA reboot, Mexico has made quite clear how eager it is to get started. Government officials there said in early February they were launching a 90-day consultation period with the country’s private sector and working on preparing a consolidated negotiating position — steps that were taken with the goal of sitting down with the U.S. and Canada sometime around ... well, now. Public and private officials have been meeting in “constant mode” since then, Moises Kalach, a Mexico City-based businessman who leads private-sector engagement with the Mexican government on trade issues, told Morning Trade late last month.

Mexico City has also made it known on a number of occasions that it hopes to wrap up talks by the end of 2017, largely because its presidential election, scheduled for mid-2018, will dominate its political agenda in the new year.

The Canadians will undergo their own consultative process, during which provinces and various stakeholder groups across Canada will discuss priorities with federal trade officials, Laura Dawson, director of the Canada Institute at the Wilson Center, told Morning Trade. Those consultations — which do not have a set time limit — will inform the mandate and negotiating objectives given to Canadian negotiators, Dawson said. The process is not expected to begin until after the Trump administration sends its notification letter to Congress. 

CANADA SEIZES THE MOMENT: Canada’s point person on NAFTA, Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, will be in Washington today and tomorrow, along Canadian Minister of National Defense Harjit Sajjan, Ottawa announced Sunday evening.

“Minister Freeland and Minister Sajjan will have meetings with Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, James Mattis, Secretary of Defense, and Wilbur Ross, Secretary of Commerce, as well as with important stakeholders, to discuss Canadian priorities and cooperation between the two countries,” a government statement said.
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