Lobbyists flood Capitol Hill to defend NAFTA

WASHINGTON — Dozens of business and industry leaders descended on Capitol Hill on Tuesday in a coordinated push to preserve the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact that has appeared increasingly at risk as the Trump administration presses Canada and Mexico for significant concessions.

More than 125 participants from the automotive, retail, agriculture and other industries planned to meet with all 100 Senate offices to ratchet up pressure on lawmakers — many of whose constituents work for companies dependent on NAFTA — to keep the deal intact, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said.

As recently as two weeks ago, the president threatened to pull out of NAFTA unless negotiators succeed in significantly rewriting the agreement, which governs commerce across the three countries. It’s an outcome that business leaders contend could devastate their profits and harm America’s ability to compete in a global market.

The meetings are part of a frantic effort by business groups to persuade lawmakers to preserve the deal and push back against some of the provisions the United States is advocating. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce organized a visit to the House of Representatives on Oct. 11 to deliver a similar message.

The president has long threatened to ditch NAFTA, but businesses largely discounted that as more bluster than reality. That has changed in recent weeks as negotiations with Canada and Mexico have become rockier, prompting industry leaders to organize and speak out. The next round of trade talks were postponed until mid-November to give the parties more time to resolve their differences.

Bill Lane of the Trade Leadership Coalition said that until recently businesses had been largely silent on NAFTA because they did not want to undercut other policy priorities, such as rewriting the tax code to secure a lower corporate tax rate.

“But they also realize it doesn’t matter what the tax rate is if you’re not competitive, and NAFTA makes North American manufacturing competitive,” Lane said.

Businesses argue that the administration’s proposed changes to NAFTA would reduce the certainty the agreement gives them over their future operating environment — a key consideration when investing long term. In an age where capital is mobile and businesses move around the world to increase their profits by a few percentage points, they argue that tighter restrictions could push manufacturing out of North America altogether.