Pelosi wants USMCA 'done this year' as critics blast talk vs. action
President Trump says House Democrats are 'too busy working on impeachment'
With the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement collecting dust, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, yet again, insists it remains a priority.
“I’d like to see us get it done this year, I mean, that would be my goal,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding that she wants the USMCA to “be a template for future trade agreements.”
Last month she said something similar. "We’re moving ahead on USMCA hoping to be on a path, a continuing path to ‘yes,’” Pelosi told reporters.
Talk versus action has the Trump administration crying foul, slamming Pelosi for not bringing USMCA to the House floor for a vote.
“She fiddles while the USMCA is in the deep freeze," White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told FOX Business' Maria Bartiromo. "The false narrative here is this whole issue about labor enforcement. That problem’s effectively been solved.”
The USMCA, which overhauls the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement, commonly known as NAFTA, requires 75 percent of automobile components be manufactured in the United States, Canada and Mexico in order to avoid tariffs, and that 40 to 45 percent of automobile parts be made by workers who earn at least $16 an hour by 2023.
Pelosi and House Democrats have voiced concerns about enforcement of the minimum wage.
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President Trump blames the delay on House Democrats being “too busy working on impeachment" which led to the start of the hearings this week.
There are some concerns that House Democrats' failure to pass USMCA this year could prevent the deal from every getting approved by Congress as 2020 is an election year.
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The USMCA was ratified by Mexico on June 19, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his government would take it up for a vote once it passed through the U.S. House of Representatives.