US trade rep Lighthizer to give progress report on negotiations
Trade will be front and center on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.
Senators want to know the latest on trade concerning, Mexico, Canada, China and Japan.
U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Lighthizer, testifies before a Senate panel on the status of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.
While Mexico and Canada are taking steps to move forward with passing the agreement, the deal remains stalled in the U.S. House of Representatives.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to see changes to the agreement’s labor, environmental and enforcement provisions.
Pelosi says she won’t bring it to a vote until the concerns are addressed.
In recent weeks, President Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico if that country didn't take measures to help stop the influx of migrants to the U.S.
Trump later said that an agreement had been reached that would delay those tariffs.
Tuesday, lawmakers are also interested to know about a potential trade agreement with Japan.
President Trump says the U.S. and Japan would announce something “probably in August,” as Tokyo has been trying to stall until after the parliamentary election this summer.
Washington and Tokyo, led by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have been wrangling over tariffs on automobiles and agricultural products for months.
While on the hot seat Tuesday, Lighthizer is also bound to get questions on how trade with China is progressing.
In trade, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross signaled any potential final trade deal with China is months away after talks broke down last month, comments that come as U.S. businesses, mainly retailers, headed to Capitol Hill in droves to oppose new tariffs on the Asian nation.
Ross did say any meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping at the upcoming G-20 summit in Japan, would be a positive step to relaunch of negotiations between the U.S. and China.
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Lighthizer testifies as the USTR is in the midst of week-long hearings on how tariffs on the remaining $300 billion of mostly consumer-facing imports from China would impact business and consumers.