A top dairy lobbying group announced that executives would be visiting Congress Dec. 4 in what they characterized as “a last-ditch effort to save this deal,” and Farmers for Free Trade sent a letter to the top Republican and top Democrat in each chamber asking that the vote on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement come as soon as possible. The letter, signed by 2,200 farmers around the country, was sent Dec. 3, and said that trade wars have hurt agriculture badly. “We have suffered from retaliatory tariffs, lost market share, and watched while America’s competitors are seen as more reliable trading partners. The reasons for this crisis are manifold but providing certainty about continued trade with two of our three largest export markets would provide America’s farmers and food manufacturers with a needed boost,” the letter said. “We are counting on our elected officials to champion the folks back home and appreciate your urgent action.”
A Mexican business group representing manufacturers, agriculture, banking and retailers says it is very concerned that certain labor demands from U.S. politicians in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are extreme in nature “and are totally unacceptable,” the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial wrote in a press release Dec. 2, adding bold for emphasis. These proposals could severely affect Mexico's competitiveness, the CCE said. It also said “respect for Mexico's sovereignty is non-negotiable.”
The top negotiator for Mexico on the new NAFTA told reporters in Canada on Nov. 29, “I think we are almost there.” Jesus Seade, who was in Canada meeting with his counterparts, had been in Washington the day before Thanksgiving to talk to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer about whether Mexico could live with the edits to the new NAFTA the Democrats had asked for. Seade told reporters that the edits might be finalized “sometime in the next week,” but if not then, he said he hopes it will be before Congress leaves town for the Christmas holiday. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a speech on the Senate floor Dec. 2 that “if a deal cannot be reached by the end of this week, I do not see how USMCA can be ratified in 2019. As it is, the window of opportunity for 2019 is extremely tight.”
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 18-22 in case they were missed.
Those who advise NAFTA stakeholders say that it looks like a factory-level inspection regime will be part of what Democrats get in their edits to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, but how disruptive that will be for businesses is completely cloudy. Kellie Meiman Hock, a managing partner at McLarty Associates, said she thinks there are ways the inspections could be done that would not make Mexico feel like American government officials are deciding whether Mexican labor laws are being followed. Hock said the two governments could select inspectors who travel together, or it could be a coalition of non-governmental organizations, as was mobilized after more than 1,000 textile workers died in a factory collapse in Bangladesh.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for Nov. 12-15 in case they were missed.
Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, the National Taxpayers Union and 16 other groups sent a letter Nov. 15 to every member of Congress urging them to reject pension reform legislation that has been talked about as a possible companion to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement implementing bill (see 1910160054). "Attaching any of them to other legislation, from must-pass appropriations to the USMCA trade agreement, is unacceptable," the groups said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., who leads the working group negotiating with the U.S. trade representative over the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, said he anticipates that USTR Robert Lighthizer will send over text of the changes to the agreement next week. Neal said he spoke with Lighthizer Nov. 14, to tell him he'd be forwarding “a series of, we think, could be make-or-break issues, and that we hoped that he would digest them and then respond to us, fast."
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said a bill reforming Section 232 won't be introduced in his committee until after the Senate votes on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, because, he said, that vote is a political complication for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Grassley, who was responding to a question from International Trade Today Nov. 12, said he doesn't think Wyden has a problem with the NAFTA rewrite, but that "it's a problem for Democrats generally, and I think he's got that to work with, and needs more time on 232. And I’m willing to give him more time, because I don’t see how I can move productively ahead without his cooperation."
President Donald Trump said everybody thinks it makes sense for the executive branch to be able to hike tariffs on trading partners to the same levels those countries tax the corresponding American products. This proposal, the Reciprocal Trade Act (see 1901240017), was introduced by a Republican who left his office in the middle of the term to work as a CNN talking head. Trump acknowledged that it cannot pass unless Republicans retake the majority in the House of Representatives.