Chamber of Commerce vows to push USMCA trade deal through Congress

Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue said Thursday that his organization was going to ensure that the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade made it through Congress, calling it a top priority for the year.

The Chamber’s next priority would be to pressure the Trump administration to exempt Canada and Mexico from the steel and aluminum tariffs it has imposed on its neighbor countries, he added.

“First of all, we are going to get it done,” Donohue told reporters after giving his organization’s “State of American Business” speech Thursday. He said that 14 million jobs depend on the trade between the three countries.

The deal is expected to face opposition from both parties in Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been noncommittal about bringing it up, saying that Mexico has first to reform its labor laws to make the deal’s provisions acceptable. Mexico has passed only limited reforms, which are seen as inadequate by some Democrats. Some Republicans are critical as well. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has said it would harm his state’s agricultural industry, and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., has called for more free market reforms.

The Chamber had previously pledged to lobby for the trade deal despite having raised concerns over some of its provisions. Donohue said Thursday that the deal was necessary to maintain the relationship with the nation’s top two export markets.

The steel and aluminum tariffs had to be lifted for Mexico and Canada, he said, because they were only imposed on those countries in the first place as a negotiating tactic for USMCA. The Trump administration has thus far resisted pressure to remove the tariffs.

The trade association president joked that he often mistakenly stumbled over the deal’s acronym, referring to it as the U.S. Marine Corps Agreement. He then quipped: “By the way, we’re bringing in the Marines to pass this.”

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