New-NAFTA deal said to be reached

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discusses her recent visit to the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain, during a news conference with the congressional delegation to that summit, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discusses her recent visit to the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain, during a news conference with the congressional delegation to that summit, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats have reached a tentative agreement with labor leaders and the White House over a rewrite of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

Details still need to be finalized and the U.S. trade representative will need to submit the implementing legislation to Congress. No vote has been scheduled.

"I'm hearing very good things, including from unions and others that it's looking good. I hope they put it up to a vote, and if they put it up to a vote, it's going to pass," President Donald Trump said Monday. "I'm hearing a lot of strides have been made over the last 24 hours, with unions and others."

The new, long-sought trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would give both Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a major accomplishment despite the turmoil of the impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi, D-Calif., still has to officially sign off on the accord, aides said. She is reviewing changes to the agreement that U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and his Mexican counterpart Jesus Seade have put on paper over the past week.

The two trade officials exchanged proposals on labor inspection rules and tougher steel provisions and finalized a compromise package late Friday that they submitted to Pelosi for approval, the people said.

Lighthizer and Seade are scheduled to meet in Washington again on Monday and could announce a deal on the NAFTA overhaul.

"Now is the time to vote on it," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday. "I am optimistic we can reach a deal."

The new trade pact would replace the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated most tariffs and other trade barriers involving the United States, Mexico and Canada. Critics, including Trump, labor unions and many Democratic lawmakers, branded NAFTA a job killer for America because it encouraged factories to move south of the border, capitalize on low-wage Mexican workers and ship products back to the U.S. duty free.

Weeks of back-and-forth, closely monitored by Democratic labor allies such as the AFL-CIO, have brought the two sides together. Pelosi is a longtime free-trade advocate and supported the original NAFTA in 1994. Trump has accused Pelosi of being incapable of passing the agreement because she is too wrapped up in impeachment proceedings.

A key party to the talks, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, said Monday morning that there was a deal and he planned to meet with his executive committee Monday afternoon to discuss it.

"We have pushed them hard and have done quite well," Trumka said in an email to The Washington Post.

Democrats from swing districts have agitated for finishing the accord, in part to demonstrate some accomplishments for their majority.

By ratifying the agreement, Congress could lift uncertainty over the future of U.S. commerce with its No. 2 (Canada) and No. 3 (Mexico) trading partners last year and perhaps give the U.S. economy a modest boost. U.S. farmers are especially eager to make sure their exports to Canada and Mexico continue uninterrupted.

Lighthizer last year negotiated the replacement agreement with Canada and Mexico. But the new accord required congressional approval and input from top Democrats like Pelosi and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts, who have been engaged in lengthy, detailed negotiations over enforcement provisions and other technical details.

Republicans leaders and lawmakers have pushed for months for the accord, but Pelosi has painstakingly worked to bring labor on board. Democrats see the pact as significantly better than NAFTA and an endorsement by Trumka could be the key to winning significant Democratic support.

The pact contains provisions designed to nudge manufacturing back to the United States. For example, it requires that 40% to 45% of cars eventually be made in countries that pay autoworkers at least $16 an hour -- that is, in the United States and Canada and not in Mexico.

The trade pact picked up some momentum after Mexico in April passed a labor-law overhaul required by the pact. The changes are meant to make it easier for Mexican workers to form independent unions and bargain for better pay and working conditions, narrowing the gap with the United States.

Mexico ratified the trade pact in June and has budgeted more money later this year to provide the resources needed for enforcing the agreement.

While all parties are still reviewing the deal, representatives from the three countries are already discussing where to have a signing ceremony, one of the people said.

U.S. labor groups and House Democrats will need to agree to the finalized details, in addition to the leaders of the three countries, according to one administration official.

Pelosi last month cautioned that even with a deal, there might not be enough time to vote on the agreement this year, reminding her members that "in a world of instant gratification," legislating takes time.

There are still a number of procedural hurdles before the agreement can come to the floor for a vote, including committee hearings and review of the implementing bill in the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees. Those steps could be waived to save time, though, and people familiar with the talks said lawmakers are likely to skip some of them.

The president has become increasingly frustrated that his deal has stalled and expressed pessimism about the chances Congress would ever take it up for a vote.

"Hard to believe, but if Nancy Pelosi had put our great Trade Deal with Mexico and Canada, USMCA, up for a vote long ago, our economy would be even better," Trump said in a tweet on Saturday. "If she doesn't move quickly, it will collapse!"

Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor and Lisa Mascaro of The Associated Press; by Jenny Leonard, Erik Wasson, Jennifer Jacobs and Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg News; and by Erica Werner and David J. Lynch of The Washington Post.

Business on 12/10/2019

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