[CTC] Trump adviser says White House has the votes to pass NAFTA revision

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/trump-adviser-says-white-house-has-the-votes-to-pass-usmca <https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/economy/trump-adviser-says-white-house-has-the-votes-to-pass-usmca>

Trump adviser says White House has the votes to pass USMCA
By: Sean Higgins 
04/22/2019
 
Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Monday that the administration believes it has the votes necessary to pass its U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade through Congress and it is just waiting on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to schedule a vote.
 
"I think the vote counters are saying that we have got all of the votes we need," Hassett told CNBC Monday. "Speaker Pelosi needs to bring it to the floor so that the thing can be passed. And then in the Senate everything is fine."
 
Hassett added that the White House has been lobbying Capitol Hill hard for a vote, with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer taking the lead on the matter. "Congress really needs to move and get thing passed by the end of the summer ... Ambassador Lighthizer has been meeting with everybody up on the hill," he said.
 
Pelosi has thus far declined to set up a vote, arguing that the deal's enforcement provisions need to be toughened up first.
 
Last week, the International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, released a study staying that the USMCA deal would boost the U.S. economy by $68.2 billion and add 176,000 jobs. However, it said that the impact would be modest in terms of the overall economy because the deal USMCA would replace, the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, had already removed most of the trade barriers and USMCA was simply removing several of the remainders.
 
Hassett touted the report Monday, saying it was proof of the benefits of the USMCA deal. Several Democrats said the report showed to the contrary that the deal did too little for the economy. "The minimal economic gains the ITC projects — if they could even be counted, which is far from certain given ITC’s past projections — are far outweighed by the damage this deal would do by locking in monopoly rights for Big Pharma and ensuring that drug prices remain high," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., in a statement Friday following the report.
 
Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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