House Majority Leader Says of Ratifying New NAFTA: 'Whether We Get There Or Not, Who Knows?'
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, speaking about the meeting of top Democrats at the White House April 30, said that they told the president "we're not there yet" on the new NAFTA, and added " that enforcement will be an important part of the consideration."
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The president's top economic advisor, Larry Kudlow, followed up by asking Democrats what exactly they're looking for on enforcement. "We did not get into specifics because we didn't want to be distracted from the major issues," Hoyer said May 1, responding to a question from International Trade Today. The meeting was called to discuss how to advance an infrastructure bill, and Democrats did not want to get sidetracked from that goal. As he talked about the brief conversation on the new NAFTA -- which was initiated by the president -- Hoyer made an aside about the pact's fate in the House, saying, "whether we get there or not, who knows?"
The tenor of that comment is in stark contrast to the USMCA Coalition-led tweet campaign May 1, where more than 125 tweets were published by mid-day with the hashtag "USMCAnow" from trade groups representing farmers, manufacturers, Internet companies, retailers, from UPS and more.
So far, there's only one legislative proposal to beef up enforcement -- the Brown-Wyden bill in the Senate (see 1904050050 and 1904220031). When asked about whether he supports that approach, Hoyer demurred, saying he doesn't want to comment on it because the House Ways & Means Committee has not yet evaluated it. He simply said, "I think Brown-Wyden is a credible proposal."