[CTC] Swing-District Democrats Push for Vote on North America Trade Pact

Tue Aug 27 07:10:34 PDT 2019

Two articles below…

https://www.wsj.com/articles/swing-district-democrats-push-for-vote-on-north-america-trade-pact-11566898201?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1 <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001G1U_Oj-aQcjuqsEGWdG6uKIq1qkDPYay4nqRx-qwV0tVOf3_MNZAcNr-OFt-_wQzlhs7OoxlgOtTyOZStddQQGQFtVCD3U-pfLeBMwfxwicwUp-Eq27pTpKLXrGQUEdBmH4nmt8VV8fnWf-4g7AvJlQyg4GIx72_2akpASdg6KYPIiIOm_bKznQzwNTWoT1M9GIk1MAmT_iUjcx9LdpCd3qJHxtfM6u70WjqdLfH8j7q4wSbBgZsLsTX4Vern6xUjoNNHYozGRpaPhfArFvpbNHC_Do1TCOnhVqLJeNDGOhLA1wjygDtqr2oOEAKFoRL&c=gMZ6bAUUY_WcrDAGHmpjLS3YiBZC9tqa2Zk8zwi2TQJ-maBN4KG-_w==&ch=nKsJt12lNbUv7y3ga9bpu25uvtx7iv9qUcdJ_GNJvvfSWG7VH9PdZQ==>

Swing-District Democrats Push for Vote on North America Trade Pact
Natalie Andrews
August 27, 2019

RICHARDSON, Texas—Tensions over global trade have ramped up the importance of the U.S. trade agreement with Canada and Mexico to businesses in this Dallas suburb, and to the freshman Democrat seeking a second term here.

Rep. Colin Allred visited the office of Mitchell Enterprises Inc. here last week to assure the company’s principals that he was doing all he could to push Congress to approve the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, President Trump’s renegotiated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“Y’all need to get this thing figured out,” said David Mitchell, president of the company, which sells heating and air-conditioning parts in five states and Mexico. “Get it voted, and get it going.”

On a bookshelf behind Mr. Mitchell’s desk was a picture of him with Pete Sessions, the 11-term GOP lawmaker whom Mr. Allred ousted last year. Republicans are gearing up to win the seat back, but it won’t be easy: Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney won the district in the 2012 election, but Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won it in 2016. Demographic changes in metropolitan areas like the Texas Triangle—the megaregion that includes Dallas, San Antonio and Houston—mean voters there aren’t as reliably Republican as they were during the redistricting that followed the 2010 census.

“For Texas, trade is enormously important,” Mr. Allred said in his still sparsely decorated office. While he said the trade deal needs to be changed to pass, he stressed his “concern is more about dealing with uncertainty and trying to give our businesses the certainty to plan…and building on the current supply chains we already have.”

While trade policy is often not a top issue for voters, the state of the economy usually is, and in Texas, the two go hand-in-hand. Mexico is Texas’ biggest trading partner, and Canada is second, measured by the percentage of the state’s exports, Census Bureau data show.

Lawmakers see the trade deal—which among other changes mandates that 75% of automobiles be manufactured in Mexico, the U.S. or Canada to qualify for zero tariffs, up from 62.5% under Nafta—as injecting a sense of certainty into the market while the country battles with China.

“They don’t know what’s going to happen day-to-day,” Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat in Houston, said of business owners in her district.

Mr. Mitchell generally supports Republicans but said he was open to backing Mr. Allred next year, depending on what he accomplishes for the community. Mr. Allred and Ms. Fletcher, the only Texas Democrats to flip GOP-held House seats last year, are trying to show their willingness to work with the president to benefit their districts. Democrats are looking to chip away at the GOP advantage in the state next year with Mr. Trump on the ballot.

“For Democrats, refusing to pass this out of spite to President Trump will only hurt them. In fact, it kicks in the gut American auto workers, manufacturers, farmers and small businesses who will benefit greatly from the agreement,” said Houston-area Rep. Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee.

From his meeting with Mitchell Enterprises, Mr. Allred went next to a Chamber of Commerce meeting where trade policy was top of mind.

John Hurst, a vice president at Richardson-based Lennox International , which makes heating, ventilation and air-conditioning products, said after the meeting that consistency was crucial for his business. “We understand that we need to be adaptable to changing environments, but this has been a bit much,” he said.

Mr. Trump this summer threatened to impose escalating tariffs on billions of dollars of Mexican imports but dropped the proposal after negotiators reached a deal on measures to stem the flow of migrants pouring into the U.S. over the southern border. More recently, China said Friday it would impose new tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. products to retaliate against U.S. moves to slap punitive tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese goods. That prompted Mr. Trump to respond hours later by increasing tariffs on Chinese goods.

Democratic lawmakers across the U.S., unlike most in Texas, have become wary of free-trade deals since Nafta took effect in 1994. Some are hesitant to give President Trump a victory as he runs for re-election.

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are concerned Mexico won’t comply with the environmental and labor standards in the agreement. Democrats also want a shorter term on the 10-year exclusivity for costly biologic drugs—pharmaceuticals produced from living organisms, such as certain types of insulin—saying the provision could prevent lawmakers from lowering the cost of prescription medicine.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said the deal may require surgical changes to pass the chamber. She assembled a working group that has told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that the deal must be reopened to add stricter enforcement provisions and change the terms on the biologics. Frustration is building because Mr. Lighthizer doesn’t want to reopen the deal, which has already been certified by Mexico.

Trade deals must start in the House. Should it pass the House, it would likely have enough support in the GOP-controlled Senate to make it to the president’s desk.

Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro is a member of the working group that has been holding conference calls during the August recess. Ms. DeLauro sees USMCA as unrelated to China.

“One should not make decisions on the renegotiated Nafta based on our relationship with China,” she said in an interview. The working group has been having weekly conference calls while Congress is in August recess.

Mr. Allred with 13 other Democrats, many in competitive districts, sent a letter to Mrs. Pelosi last month encouraging her to put the trade agreement on the floor before the end of the year. “It was to indicate that we’re willing to move forward on trying to figure out what the hurdles are and how we get over them,” Mr. Allred said.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/08/27/pence_targets_freshman_dems_to_press_pelosi_on_usmca__141097.html <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001G1U_Oj-aQcjuqsEGWdG6uKIq1qkDPYay4nqRx-qwV0tVOf3_MNZAcNr-OFt-_wQz1jlAfDdrOUUZy0KuZO1B4ibJ9UQaB4crdXYUS98iWPmA2Y287UCHa7weXymnPUi3XmYg0liMaWqFFhsqf7LbmOYKugDW2ZgUQKOheuwB18MK6AOEPNMoFVvQWOybvUivKYJ1iTe4twUHtTlH5HcxxKjePi1t0-zV_-Kdc_pz50EdfZBiFKrdyKoiWVko_9mZY19qwSZWMWBkbvxGf75vfkyrlD8eVPRM&c=gMZ6bAUUY_WcrDAGHmpjLS3YiBZC9tqa2Zk8zwi2TQJ-maBN4KG-_w==&ch=nKsJt12lNbUv7y3ga9bpu25uvtx7iv9qUcdJ_GNJvvfSWG7VH9PdZQ==>

Pence Targets Freshman Dems to Press Pelosi on USMCA
Philip Wegmann
August 27, 2019

It is the current top legislative priority of the White House, so Vice President Mike Pence has been dispatched across the country in an attempt to force vulnerable House Democrats to hurry along ratification of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

Chances of success are diminishing as the political pressures that come with a looming presidential election increase. Time, Pence told reporters at the end of July, was already running out.

“The clock is ticking. Canada has already begun to make it through the legislative process, Mexico has already begun making changes that we asked for,” the vice president said. “We believe if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brings it to the floor it will pass.”

Pence has been traveling to make the NAFTA replacement a reality, visiting Minnesota, New Mexico and Utah in recent months to put pressure on freshman Democrats in the House of Representatives.

“We’ve got to get it done. It’s why I asked you to come out here, because the clock is ticking,” Pence told workers at a hydraulic fracturing facility last week. “And I figured the best place to turn up the heat on the USMCA was in the heart of New Mexico.”

Pence made certain to call out that state’s Rep. Xochitl Torres Small and later Rep. Ben McAdams in Utah. But it isn’t so much of a play for House seats as a push for legislation with bipartisan support.

“We recognize that for Speaker Pelosi to bring this to the floor, it has to be in the interest of her members and that is why the vice president is making the case that this is beneficial to the residents of many Democratic districts,” Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, told RealClearPolitics.

The administration argument behind the trade deal is a binary one. If Pelosi doesn’t bring the bill up for consideration, Short said the speaker and her caucus will essentially be “telling their constituents they are happier with NAFTA than USMCA.”

With control of the House legislative schedule, Pelosi can kill the USMCA bill at any time. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had sparked hope that death by neglect wouldn’t happen when he told colleagues that the speaker assured him a vote would come by October, a claim that her office quickly swatted down.

“The speaker has stated repeatedly over the course of the last seven months … that Democrats want to be on a path to yes on USMCA, but that Members’ concerns about enforcement, labor, prescription drugs and environment must be addressed,” a Pelosi spokesman told Axios. “The substance will determine the timing.”

Drew Hammill, deputy chief of staff for Pelosi, reiterated to RCP that “Democrats have a variety of concerns about the USMCA” and pointed to the ongoing efforts of a working group the speaker commissioned on the issue.

For Republicans, there is fear that the party will use its control of the lower chamber to prevent the White House from chalking up a win before Election Day.

“If we were absolutely confident,” Short told RCP, “we wouldn’t be doing the travel that we are doing, so we think there needs to be additional attention brought to it.

“Having said that, we do think, at the end of the day, we will get a vote on this,” he continued, “and that is because, again, if there is not a vote, in essence what Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats are saying is that they are more comfortable with NAFTA.”

At times, Pence has seen results from that pressure play.

“I’ve called on leadership to bring USMCA for a vote this year,” McAdams tweeted after the vice president’s visit, “and I hope we can resolve any outstanding differences to get this agreement across the finish line.”

It is the United States and Canada that are lagging, though. Leaders from the three countries involved signed the deal last November, and while Mexican legislators quickly approved it, lawmakers in Ottawa and Washington are still quibbling.

President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried jump-starting approval efforts last week.

“Quite frankly, around the table there's a lot of people wanting to make trade deals with each other,” Trudeau said at the G7 Summit before adding that the U.S. and Canada have a deal that’s “good for our workers, good for our citizens, good for the middle class.”

The prize is a big one, if Pence and the administration are successful. The International Trade Commission estimates that an approved trade deal would increase gross domestic product by $68.2 billion and create 176,000 new jobs in the United States.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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