Democratic Freshmen Tell Lighthizer New NAFTA Has 'Unfinished Business'
Twenty-seven freshmen from around the country, Democrats on the left and in the center, have sent a letter to the U.S. trade representative telling him that while his NAFTA rewrite "includes some important improvements," it also has "unfinished business [that] would perpetuate NAFTA's damage."
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The letter was led by Rep. Susan Wild, a New Democrat from Pennsylvania; Rep. Andy Levin, who replaced his father Sandy Levin in a suburban Detroit district; and Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia of Illinois. Levin and Garcia attended a Fix-NAFTA 2.0 rally headlined by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on June 25, the letter's date.
Wild said she decided she wanted to recruit fellow freshmen for this letter because after reviewing the NAFTA rewrite, "it just felt as though it didn't go far enough in ways that were really important."
"As much as I think that we need to get to an agreement -- no question about that -- we really need to get the right agreement. We're not going to get a do-over next year." While the letter lays out a number of familiar Democratic talking points on the new NAFTA -- "swift and certain enforcement" and "lock in high drug prices" -- it's not clear what would satisfy the signers.
Wild, who sat down with International Trade Today to talk about the letter, said she doesn't know what kind of enforcement would qualify as swift and certain, and had not thought about the Brown-Wyden bill.
"I hear from a lot of labor [representatives] about their concerns they're going to be left out to dry on this," Wild said. Although lobbying groups pushing for passage said they would target Democrats like Wild, who represent suburbs that were recently represented by Republicans (see 1902250024 and 1905240063), Wild said her office has not had any such lobbying visits. Labor is the most vocal on the new NAFTA, she and a staffer agreed.
Wild said she has talked with manufacturers in her district who want the new deal ratified, but they also understand why Democrats are not ready to vote yet. And, she said, some say they want stronger environmental protections in the deal.
"Many of them have made the accommodations that need to be made and they don't want to see other countries be allowed to skate by on doing less," she said.
The letter, in addition to the four areas of enforcement, biologics, environment and labor, also brought up eliminating the last vestige of investor-state dispute settlement and requiring country-of-origin labels on beef. Mexico and Canada won a case challenging COOL at the World Trade Organization, and Congress was forced to repeal the standard in 2015 (see 1506010047 and 1512210002).
"That wasn't my particular issue with this bill," Wild said, referring to COOL. "My focus is really on protections for workers, the environmental impact and the prescription drugs. Those are really my main sticking points."