Lighthizer agrees to do whatever it takes to get new NAFTA passed
OTTAWA — Two days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arrival at the Oval Office, U.S. trade czar Robert Lighthizer has pledged to work with Democrats to do whatever it takes to ratify the new North American free trade deal.
Lighthizer made the comments in testimony Tuesday before the U.S. Senate finance committee as part of the Trump administration’s push to get the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement ratified by a divided Congress.
Lighthizer’s appearance on Capitol Hill comes as Trudeau prepares to meet President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to give impetus towards ratifying the deal. The leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico signed the agreement last fall, but the election clocks in all three countries are ticking loudly towards looming political deadlines.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said the new deal has “weak enforcement” provisions on raising labour standards in Mexico that he and his party want to fix.
Lighthizer said the USMCA has stronger enforcement provisions than the old North American Free Trade Agreement, including improved labour rights in Mexico, but he’s open to making it stronger.
Mexico has passed a sweeping labour reform bill that raises wages and gives unions more power, changes that Canada and the U.S. both pushed for during NAFTA renegotiation, which were acrimonious at times.
The Trudeau government has said it is pleased with the Mexican reforms, but some U.S. Democrats say more needs to be done to prevent jobs, particularly in the auto sector, from continuing to move to Mexico where wages have been historically much lower.
Wyden said he and fellow Democrats want the labour provisions to have an enforcement mechanism with “real teeth.” Along with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, Wyden said the two Democrats are proposing a co-operative approach that would provide Mexico with resources and technical assistance to enforce the labour provisions.
In later testimony, Lighthizer said he was not endorsing the Wyden-Brown plan but throughout his two-hour-plus appearance, he made clear he wants to work constructively across his country’s partisan divide to get the USMCA approved.