WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders on Tuesday praised a new trade deal to replace the decades-old North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Donald Trump and Democrats had frequently criticized.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., appeared poised to move forward with the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) less than an hour after Democratic leaders, including Pelosi, Neal, and House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., unveiled two articles of impeachment against the president accusing him of high crimes and misdemeanors.
“There is no question of course that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA but in terms of our work here it is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration,” Pelosi said. “It’s a victory for America’s workers, it’s one that we take great pride in advancing.”
Getting the deal approved by Congress has been a top legislative priority for Trump, who pushed Democrats to sign off on it before the end of the year. Successful passage would give Trump a win ahead of his 2020 re-election bid and allow him to declare victory on a signature campaign promise to repeal the trade deal he railed against.
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“It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA,” he tweeted before the Democrats’ news conference.
Democrats, who wanted tougher enforcement of labor rules included in the deal, could use the trade pact to show they can legislate even amid impeachment proceedings.
Pelosi and administration officials have been going back and forth for weeks over changes Democratic lawmakers wanted to the language reached by representatives from the three countries.
The AFL-CIO announced its support of the USMCA Tuesday, a key endorsement for Democrats.
“For the first time, there truly will be enforceable labor standards — including a process that allows for the inspections of factories and facilities that are not living up to their obligations,” the union’s president, Richard Trumka, said in a statement.
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross complained Tuesday morning that Democrats have held up the process to appease Trumka.
“The remarkable thing is that it took so long to make such small changes insisted on by the Democrats,” he said on Fox Business Network on Tuesday.
Shannon Pettypiece reported from Washington, and Jane C. Timm reported from New York.
