[CTC] House today is poised to pass the USMCA

Thu Dec 19 07:47:26 PST 2019

House is debating the NAFTA deal now…

Politico Morning Trade

— The House today is poised to pass the USMCA with strong bipartisan support, delivering President Donald Trump a major legislative victory the day after his impeachment in the lower chamber. 

— AFL-CIO made a last-minute push this week to get more Democrats to back the USMCA, but not all unions are thrilled with the final provisions in the pact.

...
HOUSE VOTES ON USMCA TODAY: The House will vote on the revised USMCA today after months of negotiations to ensure the final deal is one a majority of Democrats could support. The vote is expected to occur by midday. 

Quite the timing: Democrats will be voting on a deal Trump has made central to his reelection campaign just hours after impeaching him <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c9032990bcba379b30c09fd6c327ae7933228fe74be91390b6c932b8bc2cd5253b1c9853b28737aa211c>. Democrats have been quick to emphasize over the past week that passing the USMCA is not about Trump but about delivering a win to American workers. Democrats and Trump have long hated NAFTA, so the compromise deal is regarded as a rare bipartisan moment. 

Lawmakers will have two hours of debate, equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. If the Ways and Means markup on Tuesday was any indication, it's likely most members will use the time to praise the replacement deal for NAFTA. 

No Senate ratification: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell  <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c90316309901c000b615d3056e92fe5ebb2ed196b024fa9a679a7f68c61d2840122399bb94fea99ef830>has already made clear the Senate will not consider the deal before the holiday recess, saying last week: "If House Democrats send us impeachment articles, those have to come first in January, so the USMCA will get pushed back yet again." 

Vulnerable Democrats push McConnell for vote: <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c9038ff6e555d7f712bf9720af5d80e977baee4b25d048c66001d85f4568ef436c0956290835a3f50f16> Iowa Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903f03cecdb968975d05a7cebe586617edaceebec68530e64b14ea8bbecd9fc1745d1d79ef29f2c8990> and a group of six other freshman House Democrats from Trump-won or swing districts on Wednesday called on McConnell to pass the deal before the Senate breaks for recess. 

They're angry about the delay after they spent the past year fending off criticism in their districts from Vice President Mike Pence, Republicans and business groups that they were part of the House Democratic majority holding up the USMCA. 

UNIONS SPEAK UP AHEAD OF USMCA VOTE: AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka doubled down on his support for the USMCA by sending lawmakers a letter this week <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903a03fb2848a39e025875a57eec4c366e63e2dc79c40b65f0dafd63288e01c6df1cddf7e90d90d11a1> urging them to vote for the deal today. He outlined how the new deal has a "first-of-its-kind facility-specific enforcement mechanism" and is much better than NAFTA and the original USMCA that Trump negotiated last year. 

"While USMCA is not a new template, it does provide a new standard from which to improve upon in future trade negotiations. Rejecting it would leave the deeply flawed existing NAFTA in place for the foreseeable future," Trumka wrote. 

Yes from Teamsters: The Teamsters Union in both the U.S. and Canada on Wednesday came out in support of the deal, touting its "overdue fix" to the cross-border trucking provision. 

"Nobody got everything they wanted, but our union has decided not to make the perfect the enemy of the good," Teamsters Canada President François Laporte said in a statement.

Food workers aren't happy: The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, America's largest private-sector union, said it was "extremely disappointed" that the revised USMCA does not require country-of-origin labeling. 

"Without strong country-of-origin labeling, consumers will be kept in the dark and America's food workers will continue to face unfair competition from foreign companies not playing by the same rules," UFCW President Marc Perrone said in a statement. 

Perrone did, however, acknowledge there were significant improvements on the provisions tied to enforcement and labor standards. 

DEMOCRATS TAKE THE STAGE FOR DEBATE <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903f2d33e420a57e1ce55a238b77fa6fc5a269065578e330d648ac87f9d67d22e73f0724f31f6a0d895>: POLITICO and PBS NewsHour will host the last Democratic debate of the year tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Seven candidates — Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c90378efe3708f57b76e9de4d46a03fba95e2b3d8e652876f596472314d38f5a2f0725591448210626f7>, Bernie Sanders <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903f5c529544526aeea67a146c3fd16e52a23f3a4d69d73847b9c451499a4d6081b1b9b1ef8126ea9eb>, Tom Steyer, Elizabeth Warren <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903740e8fbbb2ec777c3d625695132928ebff88bf776638340e4f6af16d16b9279d3510631b5fe21733>, and Andrew Yang — have qualified to participate. 

Keep an eye on trade: The Democratic presidential candidates have stayed largely mum on trade both on the debate stage and on the campaign trail, but it's always possible they'll shed some light on their views, particularly as it relates to the USMCA and preliminary China deal. 

Follow our 2020 issues tracker for what the candidates have said about trade <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c9031cbfc0b5b56cf46731a0c11a99d63a436b8298adcb949d1a390e1e6fae3836c2ddff7ffb82fd1d0c> so far. Let us know if there's anything we should add. 

TRUMP REVERSAL THRILLS GENERIC DRUGMAKERS: <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903d25e5706f7f54d2ec884f989f6497e193134b85ba90d45a5f6771a5e3253f260d579a03ebab8f72e> The Trump administration's decision to drop a provision providing 10 years of intellectual property protection for biologic medicines was a big win for generic drugmakers. Now, they hope it will be replicated in other trade deals the White House negotiates, including with the United Kingdom 

"I think this is an important template for any trade negotiation going forward," said Jonathan Kimball, vice president for trade and international affairs at Association for Accessible Medicines. "It reflects the way the American public sees the pharmaceutical industry ... and doesn't handcuff any government into maintaining a level of monopoly protection for pharmaceuticals that will impede their ability to address the high cost of drugs." 

Kimball argued the revised deal better balances support for innovation and competition in the drug sector. 

Brand-name drug manufacturers don't see it that way. "I think those points [Kimball] made are ridiculous. There's no balance in this at all. There's no support for innovation," said Joe Damond, executive vice president for international affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization. 

Worse off in Asia: Biologic producers also didn't like the "vague" way the Obama administration handled the issue in the TPP, since it provided just five or eight years of protection, depending on how it was interpreted, Damond said. But now, as a result of dropping the provision in the USMCA, the industry is in an even worse negotiating position if a future administration wants to rejoin the Asia-Pacific trade pact, he said. That also applies to ongoing efforts to get China to raise its protection, Damond added. 

REPUBLICANS FOLD ON ISDS WARNING: Over 100 congressional Republicans had a stern warning for the Trump administration in March 2018: tinker with the investor-state dispute settlement provisions of NAFTA and risk losing votes.

"The prior Administration disregarded advice from Congressional Republicans and excluded a single sector from ISDS in the Trans-Pacific Partnership," the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Lighthizer <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903350e149c48d240d3491167a4dd31f0baabaf7affbf6561d8897925da36ebb0c79b72efbf6dc54a5b>, referring to the Obama administration's decision to carve out tobacco. "This policy choice significantly diminished Republican support for that agreement."

Bad news: But tinker the Trump administration did, eliminating ISDS for all new investments in Canada and significantly scaling it back for Mexico in the new USMCA. 

Forget about it: Nonetheless, two leaders of last year's letter — Reps. Kevin Brady <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c903b0737a279b086a20c9f8714b114381b116d3c7badf8d7f921ac5dbf69d86087308a78645c73a4487> (R-Texas) and David Schweikert <http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=16ba61a566d1c9030b52331a63e72b5b62690a4956bfb01ee6d24193ba19ebf0c7a1cc940bb5d0b52a9293038b06a3ea> (R-Ariz.) — and many other Republican signatories voted in favor of USMCA at the Ways and Means markup on Tuesday. In fact, Brady expressed impatience that House Democrats hadn't moved faster to bring up the agreement.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826

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