The fate of President Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade is entirely based on whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., agrees to schedule a vote on it, a White House official said Wednesday.
“I think the challenge remains for Democrats in the House in that I don’t think they want to give President Trump a victory heading into 2020,” Marc Short, chief staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said in an interview with CNBC.
Short said there were plenty of Democrats who had told the White House they did want the deal, which would replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement, and that they were now “anxious” to vote on it.
“The reality is that Speaker Pelosi, under the Trade Promotion Authority, has the keys here about when this gets brought up and what the process is,” he said. “So we are encouraging members and businesses across the country to weigh in with her office, to ask her to bring this forward for a vote in Congress. Because we think we have the votes, it’s just a matter of whether or not we get the opportunity to vote on it or not.”
He added they believe they could get Pelosi to schedule a vote before the House adjourns for its monthlong August recess.
Pelosi and other Democrats have repeatedly said the USMCA deal needs to be further amended in new talks by the three countries before it can pass Congress. Canada and Mexico have adamantly refused to reopen the deal to further talks. On Tuesday, the Chamber of Commerce said it was seeing signs that the Democrats were edging away from that position.
