Sen. Chuck Grassley R-Iowa, told reporters on Wednesday that he would encourage President Trump to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement if Democrats resist approving the president’s tweaked version of the deal.
“If they’re reaching the point where they have to go back to the negotiating table” for approval of the Trump administration’s revised version of the free trade deal, branded as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, “I would encourage the president to pull out of NAFTA,” Grassley said.
Grassley became the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, which holds jurisdiction over trade policy, last week. Trump is weighing a pre-emptive withdrawal from NAFTA as a way of forcing the issue on USMCA with Democrats.
Grassley added that he wanted to talk with Democrats on his committee about their concerns, and how opposed to the revised trade agreement they may be, before advising the president on a certain course of action.
One possibility for addressing Democrats’ demands related to the deal, Grassley said, would be “side letters” — additional agreements between the involved countries on certain issues not covered in the current deal.
Grassley said that he was open to working with Democrats on enforcement of agreements within the deal, perhaps even in areas of concern for those on the left regarding labor or environmental provisions.
“I hope that they’re smart enough not to let that happen,” said Grassley. “Because why would you want to go back to an environment where there’s higher tariffs hitting our products into Mexico than them getting their products into our country? It just doesn’t meet the common sense test.”
