Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi hedged Thursday on the possibility of House Democrats taking up the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, saying that the vote would come down to strength of the deal’s implementation language.
“This bill has good features to it but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t have enforcement,” Pelosi, who is likely to return as House speaker next year, told reporters Thursday. “Enforcement in terms of the labor provisions. Enforcement in terms of the environmental provisions.” The deal would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Pelosi said it was also “fundamental to our going forward” that Mexico first pass a version that include labor provisions that match the U.S. version. “It’s a work in progress.”
[Opinion: Nancy Pelosi has every incentive to snub Trump and let his new NAFTA die]
Ordinarily, Congress is limited in how it can alter trade deals. Trade Promotion Authority, the law that sets parameters on the administration’s trade negotiations, limits Congress to simple up or down votes on passage of deals. However, the language on how on the deal’s provisions will be implemented is unfinished, and many lawmakers and outside groups see that as a means to alter the USMCA deal.
Pelosi is set to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer Thursday to discuss the deal.
The Democratic leader referred to the bill as NAFTA respite the fact that that the administration refers the title USMCA. She jokingly referred to it as “NAFTA, the bill formerly known as ‘Prince.'”
