AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Monday that work on President Trump’s United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade was not finished, pushing back against reports that an announcement of a deal was imminent.
Many Democrats are reportedly waiting for Trumka’s okay to vote on the deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Our allies on Capitol Hill understand that getting this done right is more important than getting it done fast. So, until the administration can show us in writing that the new NAFTA is truly enforceable with stronger labor standards, there is still more work to be done,” Trumka said in a speech at the Maryland State and DC AFL-CIO 32nd Biennial Convention.
House Democrats and Trump administration officials have been negotiating for months to create a compromise version of the USMCA deal. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that an announcement on the deal could be “imminent,” sparking hopes that a vote would happen before the end of the year.
“A lot of pro-labor Democrats have been waiting for organized labor, which traditionally opposes free trade deals, to signal that it is okay to vote for USMCA,” Democratic Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar told the Washington Examiner. “A big part of it, for some members, is what labor says, what position they take. Labor has not been as vocal on this as it has been for some other trade deals.”
Trumka, leader of the nation’s largest union federation, said issues remain with USMCA. “Close is not good enough. Not when millions of jobs are at stake. Not when lives and livelihoods hang in the balance,” he said. “We cannot and will not support any deal that does not deliver for working people.”
A key issue holding up a vote is the Democratic insistence for tighter enforcement of the deal labor provisions. Democrats say Mexico has long had a corrupt labor system, and newly-elected Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s vows to clean up the system are not sufficient.
