[CTC] Grassley: NAFTA needs to be ratified this summer

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Politico Pro
Grassley: USMCA needs to be ratified this summer

BY SABRINA RODRIGUEZ <https://subscriber.politicopro.com/staff/sabrina-rodriguez> 
04/30/2019
 
Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Grassley <https://cd.politicopro.com/member/51187> (R-Iowa) said today the window is closing for Congress and Canada’s legislature to ratify the new North American trade pact this year.

Passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement “has to happen before fall,” Grassley said in a call with reporters. The Iowa Republican noted there’s an even shorter period for Canada’s House of Commons to consider USMCA before its session adjourns in June.

“It’s very important it happen in Canada — Ottawa — within maybe six weeks or less, because they’re going to adjourn and if it doesn’t get through Canada this year, what good is it to get it through the United States Congress?” Grassley said.

It is unlikely, however, that Canadian lawmakers will pass USMCA in the coming weeks, particularly given the country's opposition to the tariffs the Trump administration has imposed on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico.

Grassley, a staunch critic of those tariffs, has repeatedly said U.S. lawmakers will not consider the new deal while the duties are still in place. He made his strongest statement to date on the steel and aluminum tariffs when he wrote in an op-ed <https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-tariffs-end-or-his-trade-deal-dies-11556479697> in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday that “USMCA is dead” if the duties are not removed.

The Iowa Republican said he will meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday to discuss the USMCA and the need to give Canada and Mexico relief from the steel and aluminum duties.

“I want to help him get that victory," Grassley said in an interview on "Fox and Friends" today, referring to ratification of Trump's signature trade achievement. "I want to put pressure on [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi <https://cd.politicopro.com/member/51564>] and the House of Representatives. And if the president takes the first step, then it puts the burden back on that.”

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