[CTC] USTR submits counterproposals to NAFTA working group staff

[Arthur Stamoulis]

USTR submits counterproposals to USMCA working group staff

By Isabelle Hoagland, Inside US Trade

08/08/2019



The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has delivered U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement counterproposals to House Democrats as the two sides continue to negotiate during the August recess.

The Democratic working group gave USTR detailed text proposals last week. USTR officials have been meeting regularly with congressional staff members, a Democratic aide said.

“Paper has exchanged hands and they are in the midst of back-and-forth negotiations,” the staffer told Inside U.S. Trade.

While lawmakers have not spoken with Lighthizer directly, they have been “speaking amongst themselves regularly,” the aide said.

“We are working to get in a good place on each of the four areas,” the source continued, referring to labor, environment, enforcement and biologics, identified by Democrats as the major areas of concern. “We want to accomplish as much as possible in August."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not respond to a request for comment on USTR’s engagement with the working group this week or the agency’s counterproposals.

As Capitol Hill remains in August recess through Sept. 8, business groups and industry associations are leading “grassroots” efforts <https://insidetrade.com/node/166938> to push lawmakers in key districts to back USMCA. “We are going to ramp things up in a major way over the August recess. It’s much more effective to catch these guys and gals at home,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Thomas Donohue said late last month.

This week, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said she believed momentum toward USMCA passage was building in the House.

“Everything I hear, including the last conversation I had with Ambassador Lighthizer, is that the conversations with Speaker Pelosi and Ambassador Lighthizer are proceeding and they’re working through their differences,” Smith told Brownfield Ag News <https://brownfieldagnews.com/news/work-on-usmca-to-continue-through-august-recess/>. “And I want to be able to sign a USMCA."

But Rep. Filemon Vela (D-TX), who was part of a congressional delegation <https://insidetrade.com/node/166895> that traveled to Mexico City last month, said on Tuesday that he was confident the USMCA would likely not be voted on until late November or December. USMCA advocates are hoping for a vote in late September or early October.

Vela's comments came during an “international sweetener symposium” in Asheville, NC, according to a report <https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/14280-usmca-china-trade-issues-seen-dragging-on>.


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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