When U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer gets the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USCMA) to the finish line and to the Hill for debate, will Congress ratify it? This week Gregg Doud, USTR’s chief agriculture negotiator, said it could be the toughest congressional trade vote since 2005 when Congress narrowly passed the U.S.-Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement.
“There is a lot of shoe leather that needs to be expended by U.S. agriculture” to get the deal passed, Doud said pointing out that this will be the first trade deal many new lawmakers vote on. “We have no idea” what their position on trade is, he said.
The devil is in the details, according to Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) who serves as chair of the Senate Ag Committee and also sits on the Senate Finance committee which will be responsible for bringing the vote to the full senate.
“If agriculture is going to go through all this, we want to make sure this is actually an improvement and has enforcement that we need,” she told AgriTalk host Chip Flory, adding ratification will depend on enforcement details. “For instance, in the area of dairy and the language on class seven milk is a step in the right direction, but is it enforceable? I have big questions about whether or not anything will really change.”
House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass) predicts it won’t be an easy sell for the Trump administration. “Look, it’s going to be very hard to do this,” Neal said in an interview with Politico. Neal, who leads the powerful House committee responsible for trade issues, emphasized that he hasn’t made up his mind about USMCA, Pro Farmer’s Jim Wiesemeyer reports.
Still, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo thinks USMCA is a shoe-in.
“I think the USMCA is going to make it,” Pompeo told a group of FFA students in Des Moines. “I don’t think this’ll become a political struggle. I remain very optimistic that there’s a large consensus that this makes sense for American workers and we’ll get it passed. I hope I’m right.”
