Trump’s NAFTA facelift hits bipartisan roadblock in Congress

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• President Donald Trump aims to notch a signature achievement by pushing his revised North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress this summer. 
• But he faces skepticism from not only the majority House Democrats, but also a key Senate Republican. 

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Here are the latest developments on Capitol Hill as Trump pushes for the agreement’s swift ratification:

• Republicans emerged from a trade meeting with the president on Tuesday saying they want to get the pact signed this summer.
  
  Rep. Kevin Brady, ranking member on the House Ways and Means Committee, said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer is ready to send legislation to lawmakers when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “gives the green light.” He called getting the deal to Trump’s desk this summer “crucial.”
• Pelosi controls whether the trade deal gets to the House floor. Democrats are in no hurry to move it through the chamber. They have several reservations about the agreement, including its environmental and labor protections, its provisions for enforcing rules and its potential to increase prices on some drugs. A Pelosi spokesman did not immediately respond to a request to comment on where she stands now on ratifying the USMCA. 
• Earlier this week, House Ways and Means trade subcommittee Chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., told CNBC that Democrats are “not going to be bound” by “artificial deadlines” to ratify the agreement. The Ways and Means Committee will have to approve the deal before it goes to the House floor. On Tuesday, the trade subcommittee held a hearing on enforcing labor rules in trade deals, part of a series of events it expects to hold to assess the NAFTA changes. 
• The steel and aluminum tariffs Trump slapped on Canada and Mexico last year could also trip up ratification. After meeting with Lighthizer on Monday, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland said her country wanted the U.S. to scrap the duties. The Trump administration cited a national security threat from foreign metals imports when it levied the tariffs. 
  
  “In order to move ahead with that deal, I think Canadians feel that the right thing is there should be no 232 tariffs or retaliatory measures between our countries. And that was what I expressed clearly to Ambassador Lighthizer,” Freeland told reporters. 
• Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, also told reporters this week that tariffs on Mexico and Canada should come off as part of the approval process. Trump has not signaled willingness to remove the duties.
• Republicans have started a grassroots blitz to sell the deal to skeptical lawmakers and voters.

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