Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., urged the White House on Thursday to continue working on a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement despite the apparent consensus that a deal would not be reached this year.
Reports that this week was the deadline to submit a deal to Congress should be ignored, the congresswoman said.
“We demand the White House continue to negotiate,” DeLauro said, alleging that a deadline of May 17 mentioned last week by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was an effort by him to “derail” any deal as a “parting shot” to the administration before he retires from office.
Ryan announced last month that he would not seek re-election this year.
Ryan’s comments were based on a reading of the rules for the White House submitting a deal to Congress for approval under the Trade Promotion Authority law. The president must give Congress notice 90 calendar days prior to signing an agreement. He must also give the International Trade Commission the same notice and allow the agency 105 days to produce an assessment of the deal after it is signed. That would put the deadline at about May 18, according to most estimates, because that is 195 days from when the Congress is scheduled to conclude.
The Trump administration hasn’t officially endorsed that reading of TPA, but has tried to complete the renegotiations before that date to head off any potential complications to submitting a deal to Congress. Hopes for that have faded with reports that U.S., Canada and Mexico have failed to make a breakthrough this week.
“It has been advancing, but we are not in a condition to say that we can close NAFTA… It was determined to continue negotiating, until we have an agreement,” Kenneth Smith Ramos, Mexico’s chief negotiator for NAFTA, told Mexican City radio station XHMVS Wednesday.
DeLauro praised U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, saying he had listened to Democrats’ concerns regarding NAFTA. “I think he is genuinely trying to get to a piece of legislation that will have bipartisan support and I applaud him for that… We never got that kind of audience when we were dealing with the Obama administration,” DeLauro said.
