WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Anthony Brindisi was among three Democrats who met privately with Vice President Mike Pence at the White House last week before Democrats and Republicans agreed on a new North American trade deal to replace NAFTA.
Brindisi, D-Utica, said he was part of a bipartisan group of six House members from the Problem Solvers Caucus who wanted to discuss a path forward on the trade deal in negotiations between the House and President Donald Trump’s administration.
House Democrats, the White House and labor leaders were close to a tentative deal Monday on a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement known as USMCA, according to multiple reports.
Brindisi, among moderate House Democrats in the Blue Dog caucus who support the deal, said the six House members met privately with Pence for about an hour on Friday morning.
The bipartisan group led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Tom Reed, R-Corning, didn’t make any breakthrough in negotiations that led to the tentative deal, Brindisi said, but it was important for their voice to be heard.
“This was more about showing bipartisan support to move this forward by the end of the year,” Brindisi said of the meeting.
Brindisi said he spoke with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week before the meeting to explain his interest in seeing a deal approved by Congress by the end of the year.
“This is about helping farmers and manufacturers across our region,” Brindisi said. “We want to have the ability to export products from Upstate New York to two of our most important trade partners.”
The new trade deal would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, an agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that eliminated most tariffs and trade barriers in North America.
Democratic House members from swing districts like Brindisi had pushed for ratifying a new deal to show an accomplishment from their majority.
In addition to Brindisi, Reed and Gottheimer, the House members who met with Pence were Reps. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va.; Pete Stauber, R-Minn.; and Don Bacon, R-Neb.
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