[CTC] Pelosi: NAFTA 2.0 will be template for future trade deals

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Pelosi: USMCA will be template for future trade deals

By Adam Behsudi

12/09/2019 09:27 PM EST

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her caucus is "within range" of agreeing on
a revised USMCA.

"It would be a prototype, a template for future trade agreements
recognizing that global is a fact of life. It is inevitable," she said at
the Wall Street Journal CEO Council tonight.

The California lawmaker revealed no details on what was agreed but said
"great progress" was made in meeting Democratic demands in a "U.S.-Mexico
annex." Democrats wanted to strengthen enforcement of the agreement's labor
provisions.

Pelosi acknowledged that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will
be in Mexico on Tuesday. POLITICO reported today that the trade official
would travel to Mexico City to sign a finalized agreement after it got
approval from Pelosi and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

"I don’t think it's to go to the beautiful anthropological museum that is
there and to have a wonderful Mexican meal. I think it’s for another
purpose," she said.

White House adviser Jared Kushner would not say if he would also be in
Mexico when asked at the same event. "I'll be somewhere tomorrow," he said.
"Right now it looks like we're making pretty good progress."

Pelosi also admitted all her demands were not met. The speaker made a
last-minute demand to scrap the agreement's provisions protecting internet
companies from legal issues created by user-generated content.

The lawmaker said she told Lighthizer she would not be "moving the
goalposts."

"I didn’t have the leverage I might have had in an earlier time," she said.

More broadly, Pelosi acknowledged that the agreement might not earn the
support of her entire caucus.

“You don’t have to have unanimity, you just have to have consensus," she
said.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
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