[CTC] McConnell bashes Pelosi, Democrats on NAFTA, says 'no real progress' has been made

[Arthur Stamoulis]

McConnell bashes Pelosi, Democrats on USMCA, says 'no real progress' has been made 
09/26/2019, Inside US Trade

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats say they back the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, “we have yet to see any real progress” in getting it passed, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said on Thursday.
 
Opening the Senate session, McConnell bucked the rhetoric employed of late by administration officials and many other Republicans who have praised Pelosi for her dealings with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on USMCA.
 
“Speaker Pelosi keeps saying she supports the agreement in the abstract, but the drip, drip, drip of small objections and stalling tactics keep on coming,” McConnell said, decrying what he called the Democrats' continued “heel-dragging.”
 
“Even as Speaker Pelosi's moderate members beg her to pass this deal, it's almost as though she's looking for reasons to duck it,” he continued. “Well, I certainly hope not.”
 
McConnell touted the deal's economic potential and said its passage portended “stronger relationships with two of our closest allies in the face of China’s aggressive economic policies.”
 
On Twitter, he accused the Democrats of “obstructing” and “blocking the USMCA.”
 
The administration, however, has yet to send the House a USMCA implementing bill, preferring to wait instead for a House Democratic working group to iron out differences with USTR in four key areas. USTR Robert Lighthizer, in New York City with President Trump this week at the United Nations, told reporters on Thursday that Democrats “have asked for specific and sensible things that they want assurances on. We should modify this legislation to accommodate their needs. This should be a bipartisan bill. It should be something where there are wins for the resident and there are wins for the speaker and for the Democrats.”
 
“We expect to get there,” he added. “We have a robust process. I’m meeting again on Friday with the people that she has designated, and I think everybody is operating in good faith and on the merits. It’s not all about politics in Washington, right? On the merits, this is demonstrably good for the people of the United States. And I think, for that reason, it will pass. I believe in the system, and I think we're going to have a bilateral win, and I think it's going to be good for the economy, for the American people, for Republicans, but also good for the Democrats.”
 
Lighthizer added that “it will be their bill too. It will be modified to accommodate their needs.”
 
President Trump, however, was less confident about the deal's chances this week, saying in New York City that Pelosi and the Democrats were too focused on impeachment. Lawmakers from both parties this week said they did not expect the House impeachment probe to derail efforts to get USMCA to a vote.
 


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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