[CTC] USTR sends draft NAFTA statement to Capitol Hill; Pelosi says it's 'not a positive step'

Fri May 31 05:12:22 PDT 2019

Statements from Speaker Pelosi and Reps. Neal, Pascrell and DeLauro below.  Here’s the actual SAA submission:
https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/USMCA_SAA_Cover_Letters_5.30.19.pdf <https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/USMCA_SAA_Cover_Letters_5.30.19.pdf>

USTR sends draft USMCA statement to Capitol Hill; Pelosi says it's 'not a positive step'

By Isabelle Hoagland, Inside US Trade
05/30/2019

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday sent lawmakers a draft statement of administrative action on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, starting the 30-day clock allowing for the submission of final implementing legislation to Capitol Hill.

A congressional aide told Inside U.S. Trade that Lighthizer's office notified the committees of jurisdiction early on Thursday of his intent to send the draft to Congress, where it faces a still uncertain fate. The statement will include language on how the administration intends to implement USMCA.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) issued a statement on Thursday saying the SAA had been sent to Congress "before we have finished working with U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer to ensure the USMCA benefits American workers and farmers" -- and contending the move was "not a positive step. It indicates a lack of knowledge on the part of the Administration on the policy and process to pass a trade agreement."

"Democrats have continued to work productively and with great respect for Ambassador Lighthizer around the priorities of labor standards to defend the jobs and wages of American workers, lower prescription drug costs and meaningful environmental protections," she added. "We must have strong enforcement provisions within the agreement. We all agree that we must replace NAFTA, but without real enforcement mechanisms we would be locking American workers into another bad deal. A new trade agreement without enforcement is not progress for the American worker, just a press release for the President."

Pelosi added that Democrats had "been on a path to yes, but it must be a path that leads to an agreement that delivers positive results for American workers and farmers."

Sources said the draft likely will change over the next month as discussions continue between Democrats and the USTR on four areas the caucus has said are in need of changes. Last week, Inside U.S. Trade reported that Pelosi was designating working groups to identity paths forward on labor, environment, biologics and enforcement issues.

The draft SAA's submission starts a process proscribed under Trade Promotion Authority law.

According to Stephen Claeys, an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP and former counsel for the House Ways & Means trade subcommittee, the submission of the draft document on May 30 would mean the "earliest that the draft USMCA bill can be sent up is June 30 but that is a Sunday," he said on Twitter. "Also has to be a day both Chambers are in session and the following week is July 4 recess. So earliest probably is July 9."

But Rep. Richard Neal (D-MA), the chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee, said in a statement that "The timeline for the consideration of a renegotiated NAFTA will be determined by the completion of the work that remains to be done by Democrats and Ambassador Lighthizer to address [Democrats'] concerns."

"The premature submission of a draft statement of administrative action has no impact on that outstanding work or the timeline moving forward," he added.

The governments of Canada and Mexico this week submitted implementing bills to their legislatures.

On Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and addressed USMCA.

"The prime minister and I discussed the whole process of ratification ... and I assured him that the president and I are absolutely determined to ... move it forward and to move it forward this summer," Pence said after meeting with Trudeau in Ottawa.

Pence said he had met with Lighthizer on Wednesday and added that the trade representative planned to meet with lawmakers when they are back in session next week to continue work on the implementing legislation.

"We remain confident that the USMCA will receive broad-based support in the Congress if it's brought to the floor," Pence said, adding the administration was "absolutely committed to driving [USMCA] forward" for summer approval.

https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/53019/ <https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/53019/>

Pelosi Statement on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement

San Francisco - Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued this statement after the Administration sent a draft statement of administrative action on USMCA to Congress:

"The Trump Administration's decision to send Congress a draft statement of administrative action before we have finished working with U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer to ensure the USMCA benefits American workers and farmers is not a positive step.  It indicates a lack of knowledge on the part of the Administration on the policy and process to pass a trade agreement.

"Democrats have continued to work productively and with great respect for Ambassador Lighthizer around the priorities of labor standards to defend the jobs and wages of American workers, lower prescription drug costs and meaningful environmental protections.  We must have strong enforcement provisions within the agreement.

"We all agree that we must replace NAFTA, but without real enforcement mechanisms we would be locking American workers into another bad deal.  A new trade agreement without enforcement is not progress for the American worker, just a press release for the President.

"We have been on a path to yes, but it must be a path that leads to an agreement that delivers positive results for American workers and farmers."

# # #

https://waysandmeans.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/neal-pascrell-respond-nafta-renegotiation-notice <https://waysandmeans.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/neal-pascrell-respond-nafta-renegotiation-notice>

NEAL, PASCRELL RESPOND TO NAFTA RENEGOTIATION NOTICE
May 18, 2017  Press Release 

WASHINGTON, DC – Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard Neal (D-MA) and Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ) today sent a letter to United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer, in response to the Administration’s notice to Congress that it intends to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“The tone and substance of the letter cannot be squared with the statements the President made describing NAFTA as a ‘disaster’ and the ‘single worst trade deal’ the United States ever negotiated,” the Members wrote. “The letter, on the other hand, emphasizes that the Administration’s goal is merely to ‘improve’ and ‘modernize’ NAFTA. The President also criticized Hillary Clinton for describing TPP as the ‘gold standard,’ but Administration officials now say TPP text will serve as the starting point for many of its proposals to change NAFTA. And the notice is hardly consistent with your statement last week that you intend to ‘permanently reverse the dangerous trajectory’ of U.S. trade policy. For those of us who believe that U.S. trade policy – and NAFTA – need fundamental reform, this notice is very disappointing.”

Click here to view the letter. <https://waysandmeans.house.gov/sites/democrats.waysandmeans.house.gov/files/documents/NAFTA%20Letter.pdf>

Full text of the letter to Ambassador Lighthizer:

May 18, 2017

Robert Lighthizer

U.S. Trade Representative

Office of the U.S. Trade Representative

600 Seventeenth Street

Washington, DC 20505

Dear U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer:

We are writing to express our concern regarding the lack of clarity and specificity in your letter notifying Congress that the President intends to initiate negotiations with Canada and Mexico concerning the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).  Businesses, workers, farmers, and their representatives in Congress today face a great deal of uncertainty as to what the Administration’s intentions are with NAFTA.  This notice provided an opportunity to finally provide some clarity.  Unfortunately, it fails to do that – and may not even meet the basic consultation requirements set out in section 105 of the Bipartisan Congressional Trade Priorities and Accountability Act of 2015 (TPA).

The tone and substance of the letter cannot be squared with the statements the President made describing NAFTA as a “disaster” and the “single worst trade deal” the United States ever negotiated.  The letter, on the other hand, emphasizes that the Administration’s goal is merely to “improve” and “modernize” NAFTA.  The President also criticized Hillary Clinton for describing TPP as the “gold standard,” but Administration officials now say TPP text will serve as the starting point for many of its proposals to change NAFTA.  And the notice is hardly consistent with your statement last week that you intend to “permanently reverse the dangerous trajectory” of U.S. trade policy. For those of us who believe that U.S. trade policy – and NAFTA – need fundamental reform, this notice is very disappointing.

The letter does little more than express an intention to comply with the negotiating objectives that are applicable generally to any trade agreement negotiated under TPA.  But Congress expected much more specificity in the 90-day written notification.  Under TPA, the notice must describe “the specific United States objectives” for a particular negotiation with a particular country. We need to know what the President intends to achieve by reopening NAFTA and what specific changes the President will propose to achieve that purpose.

Some fundamental and critically important questions remain unanswered today.  That is particularly true given how different today’s one-page final notice is from the eight-page draft we received in March. 

For example, neither TPA nor the final notice provide any guidance as to how government procurement should be handled in a NAFTA renegotiation.  Does the Administration intend to grant Canadian and Mexican suppliers reciprocal access to our government procurement market, or not?  On currency manipulation, TPA leaves it to the Administration to choose between a menu of options – everything from fundamental reforms such as “enforceable rules” to weak mechanisms that have already been tried and have already failed, such as “reporting, monitoring, and cooperative mechanisms.”  Which of these options does the Administration intend to pursue in a NAFTA renegotiation?  TPA is silent on the objective of rules of origin – which the Administration stated in the past is a key objective.  Is it still an objective, and what is the objective?  And does the Administration intend to address growing concerns with how the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism affects the sovereign right to regulate in the public interest?

Perhaps most importantly, based on my discussions with Administration officials as well as the draft notice, we are concerned that the Administration may not be fully committed to addressing the single most important reason that jobs have migrated to Mexico and weakened the bargaining position of U.S. workers:  the Government of Mexico’s longstanding and utter failure to respect internationally-recognized worker rights.  While many of us in Congress fully expect Mexico will agree to the labor obligations from the “May 10 Agreement” of 2007, which are included in TPA, we have no confidence right now that the Government of Mexico will fully implement and honor those obligations, or that this and future Administrations will fully enforce them. That must change before we are asked to support a renegotiated NAFTA.

Finally, we are troubled by the process the Administration followed in drafting the notice.  It was clear from the start that the Administration was only interested in working with the Congressional Republican leadership in drafting this notice.  But Congressional Republican leadership has long opposed any changes to NAFTA, and now only reluctantly expresses a willingness to “improve” and “modernize” it.  They in no way share your goal of “permanently reversing” the trajectory of U.S. trade policy.  We therefore hope you will work more closely with us as this process moves forward.

###

DeLauro Statement on Trump Administration's Draft Statement of Administrative Action for NAFTA

NEW HAVEN, CT - Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today released the following statement after the Trump Administration sent Congress a draft statement of administrative action for the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"Today's action on NAFTA by the Trump administration is shortsighted, counterproductive, and premature. If the administration wants to move quickly on NAFTA, then they need to quickly make the improvements needed to ensure the deal stops job outsourcing and does not lock in high medicine prices."

"If enacted as-is, the renegotiated NAFTA deal that Trump signed last year would not stop ongoing job outsourcing, and it would keep drug prices high in the United States. That is unacceptable."

"Throughout this process, Democrats have worked in good faith with Ambassador Lighthizer to achieve the improvements needed for a revised NAFTA to enjoy broad support. This includes removing from the text signed last year new giveaways to Big Pharma that lock in high drug prices and adding to the text improved labor and environmental standards and enforcement. Today, these issues remain unresolved."

"Until these changes are complete, any move by the administration to try to force Congress to consider its incomplete NAFTA 2.0 will be counterproductive."

###

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
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