LANSING, MI -- Two Michigan Democratic members of the U.S. House said they are hoping to remove obstacles standing in the way of a vote on the new North American trade agreement by the end of this year.
U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint, said he recently met with the Mexican president to discuss several aspects of President Donald Trump’s revised trade deal that Democrats are hoping to adjust before voting. While Kildee recognized the challenge in convincing Mexico to embrace reforms, he said Congress will ultimately have to choose between the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement and an old deal that is detested by both parties.
“I’m holding my powder to try to make sure that we use this time, we have the next month or two, to make sure that binary choice is between the old agreement and the absolute best agreement we can get,” Kildee said.
Kildee and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, attended a Thursday legislative policy dinner hosted by the Lansing Regional Economic Chamber. Slotkin said her main issue with the USCMA is a lack of enforcement provisions to ensure new labor standards are carried out in Mexico.
“I personally think you could solve this with one sentence, and therefore I still have great hope that we can get it done,” Slotkin said. “I certainly feel a real need to get this done and to get it done before the end of the year."
Kildee’s Mexico visit with other members of the House Ways and Means Committee was scheduled nearly a year after leaders of the U.S. Mexico and Canada signed the new trade agreement. The USMCA still awaits Congressional approval.
Kildee said a working group is negotiating changes to the deal in four main areas: enforcement, labor and environmental standards and drug pricing provisions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the USMCA won’t come up for a vote in the House until Democrats’ concerns are addressed. Slotkin said she urged Pelosi to move the issue forward.
Republicans have also been pressuring Democrats to act on the new trade pact.
Vice President Mike Pence chose Michigan to start a months-long national tour pushing the USMCA. Pence routinely criticizes Democrats along the way for being too slow to act.
“I mean, the truth of the matter is the Do-Nothing Democrats on Capitol Hill are spending all their time on endless investigations and a partisan impeachment," Pence said during a Nov. 3 visit to Virginia.
Michigan manufacturers are calling for a quick resolution to the USMCA negotiations, ensuring free trade can continue across the continent. Canada and Mexico purchase more manufactured goods from Michigan than the rest of the world combined, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The U.S. International Trade Commission anticipates 176,000 new domestic jobs will be created by passing the USMCA, and more than $68 billion will be added to the U.S. economy. In Michigan, manufacturing jobs make an average of $77,800 per year, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
Kildee represents a region of the state that was hit hard after the implementation of the original North American Free Trade Agreement.
“There’s certainly bipartisan support, generally, for getting a new agreement,” Kildee said. “NAFTA has two problems: One it’s not a great agreement to start with. Secondly, it’s just old. There are lots of aspects of our economy that were not covered in the mid-1990s when the trade agreement was written.”
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