United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I am delighted to stand in support of H.R. 5430, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act.
The legislation we are considering today is the result of almost 14 months of negotiations between House Democrats and Ambassador Lighthizer, and I am very proud of the outcome that we have reached.
As a result of these months of work, the USMCA is a transformative agreement that creates a new high-water mark for U.S. trade deals going forward.
When we assumed the majority this year, we were asked to consider a renegotiated NAFTA that had structural flaws in a key number of areas: enforcement, labor rights, environment, and access to medicines.
Let me start with enforcement, which was the crux of this agreement.
As I have noted many times over the past year, I did not vote for the original NAFTA. The chief reason was the lack of enforceability mechanisms. During these past 25 years, we have seen the shortcomings of the original agreement, much of which comes down to a lack of enforcement, in my view.
House Democrats, working with Ambassador Lighthizer, fixed many of those issues. The improvements to the USMCA that we negotiated finally make the agreement enforceable by preventing a country from being able to block the formation of a dispute settlement panel.
On labor, our trade agreements, in many cases, have failed American workers. NAFTA has been symbolic of our broken promises to these workers.
Over 25 years of the NAFTA, there have been 39 petitions filed documenting the exploitation of workers and zero enforcement actions taken to remedy those violations.
In close partnership with labor unions and with the robust support of Ways and Means Democrats, support from Republicans, we negotiated improvements to the rules and to our monitoring regime, and we established a new enforcement mechanism.
On the rules, we strengthened certain provisions and addressed obstacles to enforcement in many others. On monitoring, for the first time we have created a proactive monitoring regime for labor obligations in a trade agreement. The implementing bill establishes an Interagency Labor Committee that will actively monitor Mexico's compliance, and report back to Congress.
On enforcement, we negotiated a historic mechanism never included in a trade agreement before. As a result of Democratic efforts, we will now have a facility-specific, rapid-response mechanism to address violations of key labor obligations.
We have made great improvements to environmental provisions. The USMCA will now include the highest environmental standards of any trade agreement in history and will include a new customs verification agreement to enhance enforcement.
The implementing bill, and I hope our colleagues in this Chamber will hear this, also secures more than $600 million in funding for environmental problems in the NAFTA region and reauthorizes the North American Development Bank.
Through the dedication of the working group members, the Trade Subcommittee members, we also secured important changes to USMCA that preserve Congress' ability to change U.S. law to address the crisis we face with respect to high prescription drug prices.
These changes set a new standard for U.S. trade agreements, and demonstrate that trade agreements can achieve broad, bipartisan support if they empower workers, protect patients, provide access to affordable healthcare, and improve our shared environment.
I am proud of what we did here. After 14 months of negotiating on every conceivable front, we have improved the old NAFTA.
Madam Speaker, I want to remind our colleagues today, if they decide that they are not going to vote for this piece of legislation in front of us, that is up to them. But one thing they cannot say is, this is not much better than what we have had in the past.
So the options here are clear: you can vote for what we have negotiated or you can embrace the status quo. And if this fails today, that is precisely what you are doing: embracing the status quo.
This agreement, based upon the painstaking efforts of members of the committee and Ambassador Lighthizer, was done with full transparency. No surprises are in this legislation.
I hope that today we can say at the end of the time limits that this was a successful negotiation of the largest trade agreement in American history, a hemispheric agreement that I think we can stand in support of with great pride today.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), the chairman of the Trade Subcommittee, who also made an invaluable effort in terms of the working group that assembled the document that we will vote on this afternoon.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), whose legendary work on behalf of America is well known to all.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, we consider it a bit of a miracle that the gentleman did not show up with his charts.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson), whose invaluable work on the committee and a steady hand all of the time is very much appreciated.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson), a member of the working task force that assembled the document in front of us today, again, whose keen mind and good sense is always very helpful to these debates.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind). His advocacy on behalf of agriculture is well- known to all in this body.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, it is always an honor to endorse the Speaker of the House and to welcome her to the floor, but also to point something out.
On weekends, from Brussels, from Madrid, from Paris, she called me. And on the final weekend, time and again, with the U.S. trade rep on the line, the three of us went back and forth with Rich Trumka, who was in Pennsylvania on vacation, who couldn't have cell access until 5 o'clock in the evening. The Speaker was totally involved in this endeavor.
But most importantly, she called me in the middle of a Patriots game, and I was smart enough to take the call.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi).
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis), who is a well-known champion of all things Chicago and a great advocate of working men and women.
Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I have always been told, if there is righteousness in the heart, then there is beauty in the character. I think what we have seen this week and what we are seeing today is the righteousness of the Members of this House who take the position that neither side will get everything that it wants.
I certainly won't get everything that I want for the State of Illinois, but I have got dairy farmers--not as many as Ron Kind may have in Wisconsin--I have got corn growers in Illinois and soybean growers--maybe not as many as there are in Iowa. But the comprehensiveness of the communities that we represent demand that we come together.
So I want to commend Chairman Neal, our ranking member, the working group, and the Speaker of the House because it took all of them to make this work.
So, Madam Speaker, I am going to vote for it. I admit that I feel a great deal like Bill Pascrell, but I am going to vote for it because we need to come together and do what we can for the American people.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Buffalo, New York (Mr. Higgins).
Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, the economic future of Buffalo and western New York is tied strategically to southern Ontario, which is one-third of the entire population of the country of Canada.
I am pleased that this agreement strengthens the U.S.-Canadian economic and life quality relations. I am concerned, however, that the U.S.-Mexican economic relationship is more challenging.
The United States has lost 6 million manufacturing jobs in the past 20 years, and 53,000 manufacturing businesses have closed. NAFTA's promise of wage convergence, bringing Mexican wages to Canadian and U.S. standards, has failed. The Mexican wage is $5.10 a day, less than $0.64 an hour.
We have good reason to be skeptical of Mexico's commitment to do better. The USMCA, however, because of Chairman Richard Neal's leadership and emphasis on rigorous enforcement, does have the potential for improved Mexican compliance on wages, the environment, and labor standards.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell), who, again, was an invaluable member of the Trade Working Group. Her advocacy for people in her constituency is well known to all.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. DelBene), whose well-acknowledged efforts on behalf of the best and most important trade State in the country, Washington, as well as being a knowledgeable forecaster of international economics for all benefit all of us on the committee.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Judy Chu), another invaluable member of the Committee on Ways and Means whose knowledge about southern California is very important to all of us.
Ms. JUDY CHU of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the improved USMCA. With the changes demanded by Democrats from the original proposal, this agreement marks a historic step that will stop the bleeding of American jobs to other countries.
Free trade agreements have often meant lost jobs or lower wages for American workers, and the Trump administration's initial USMCA was no different. But Democrats fought back to win new labor protections that make this deal actually work for Americans.
I have seen firsthand why these protections are so important. Earlier this year, I traveled on the Committee on Ways and Means' trip to Mexico to investigate the labor challenges we are facing.
At a Goodyear plant, I spoke directly to workers whose starting pay was only $2 an hour and even less after deductions. Then, when these workers went on strike to demand better wages, nearly 50 labor leaders were harassed, threatened with violence, and fired. This means that a company that pays American workers $23 an hour and made $15.5 billion in sales last year would rather fire Mexican workers than pay them a fair wage.
It is one of the many examples that explains why companies outsource jobs and exploit labor in other countries. And it is why Democrats fought so hard for a USMCA deal with strong labor protections to ensure a level playing field.
This trade deal isn't perfect, but it is an important step in the right direction and protects American jobs.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Evans), whose district I recently visited, a real champion of the airport, a real champion of the seaport, and a real champion of international economics.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider), a very knowledgeable member of the Ways and Means Committee whose district I visited not that long ago.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Panetta), a very invaluable member of the Ways and Means Committee, advocate of the ``Salad Bowl of the World,'' and a good friend.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, this is really a happy moment for me to acknowledge the work that the gentleman from California (Mr. Gomez) did on behalf of labor rights. He stood up in the working group on behalf of the working people, and I think that he considerably shifted this argument in their direction.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Gomez).
(Mr. GOMEZ asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici), an important advocate of environmental issues as a member of the Trade Working Group.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), a formidable negotiator and a very important member of the Trade Working Group.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), a formidable negotiator, a great friend, and, I must say, an invaluable member of the working group that helped assemble this document.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar), a real champion of this agreement.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Ms. Kendra S. Horn), a real champion of agriculture and small business.
Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman Neal for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the passage of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
I am proud to support this bipartisan agreement that strengthens trade and is good for both economic growth opportunities and for our workers.
A stronger trading relationship with Mexico and Canada is good for a stronger economy for Oklahoma. These two countries are already the Sooner State's largest trading partners, accounting for $2.4 billion in Oklahoma exports in the last year alone.
This newly-agreed-to USMCA is a monumental step in strengthening this trading relationship. This agreement not only ensures fair trade for Oklahoma businesses and workers--who continue to create world-class products--by guaranteeing that exports that enter Canada and Mexico are all tariff-free, but it also gives Congress the necessary tools of enforcement to combat the high cost of prescription drugs and is good for our workers.
This strongly improves labor standards, as well as allowing workers to compete on a level playing field.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this USMCA and other bipartisan solutions.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Stanton).
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Spanberger), a courageous congresswoman.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gonzalez).
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Allred), a courageous congressman.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Craig), who I can assure everybody was an assertive advocate for this agreement.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Stevens), a ferocious advocate.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the very capable gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Torres Small), who once even followed me into the coffee shop to advocate on behalf of this agreement.
Ms. TORRES SMALL of New Mexico. Madam Speaker, I thank President Trump, congressional leadership, Chairman Neal, Ranking Member Brady, and members of the USMCA working group for fighting to make significant improvements to the out-of-date NAFTA agreement.
This is a win for New Mexico's workers, small businesses, agricultural producers, and our economy as a whole.
In my conversations with constituents from across southern New Mexico, I have seen just why NAFTA is out of date and why USMCA will be a better deal.
Dairy producers in Belen and Roswell have talked with me about how, even when New Mexican dairies aren't selling directly to Canada, increased market access and new pricing will raise commodity prices across the country.
USMCA makes significant progress in protecting American workers by evening the playing field with meaningful enforcement mechanisms that will protect hard-won improvements.
Other New Mexicans, like our world-famous New Mexico chili and pecan growers, now have the certainty of a trade deal.
New Mexico stands to gain real benefits after we pass USMCA today.
Like any deal, it isn't perfect. Environment and enforcement standards can always be improved. But the USMCA is entirely necessary for New Mexico's producers, workers, and consumers.
This deal will deliver for New Mexico. It shows that compromise can be made, that we can put politics aside.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of USMCA.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Axne). I can assure the people of Iowa that she advocated on behalf of this agreement.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I am glad to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa), who is an assertive advocate of USMCA.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Cunningham), and I want to recognize the critical role that he played in getting us to this bipartisan negotiation of USMCA.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos), a well-regarded Congresswoman whose district I have visited.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), a very good friend of mine.
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Mr. NEAL. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Brindisi), a very accomplished gentleman.
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Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.
So on this occasion, Mr. Speaker, we conclude after 14 months of negotiating a hemispheric trade agreement--no small matter and no small accomplishment. It included a visit with the delegation to Mexico to meet with the President of Mexico, President Lopez Obrador. It included a delegation that visited Prime Minister Trudeau in Canada and intense negotiations in both countries, and I think it is fair to say that the conversations in both countries were indeed very spirited.
But before I go to more of the specifics, we would not have gotten here without some very important and critical moments of focused and diligent work by Members of the House and the staff that got us to where we are today.
First, an acknowledgment to Speaker Pelosi, who from day one said that the game plan is to get to yes. Her leadership to get the deal across the line, I think, was matched almost by her top trade adviser, Katherine Monge.
Let me thank the working group members, Trade Subcommittee Chairman Blumenauer and his staff Laura Thrift and David Skillman; Representative Thompson and his staff, Jennifer Goedke; Representative Larson and his staff, Scott Stephanou; Representative Terri Sewell and her staff, Rob Nuttall; Representative Jim Gomez and his staff, Sam Negatu; Representative Rosa DeLauro and her staff, Jack Spasiano; Representative Schakowsky and her staff, Syd Terry and Osaremen Okolo; and Representative Suzanne Bonamici and her staff, Allison Smith.
I want to thank the House Legislative Counsel, Mark Synnes and Kalyani Parthasarathy for their expertise, creativity, and many hours of hard and good work with our staff to prepare this legislation that is more than 200 pages long. They represent the very best of this institution's professionalism.
For the support of colleagues and staff that I received from the diplomatic corps in Mexico City and Ottawa, we should express our gratitude as well to Ms. Elizabeth Hoffman at our Embassy in Mexico City for her extraordinary talents and efforts to support our attempts as we got to yes.
I have great confidence and belief in the staff members at the Ways and Means Committee, and, yes, on both sides. So I want to thank my committee staff who have worked tirelessly on this agreement: Chief Trade Counsel and staff director of the Trade Subcommittee, Katherine Tai, who led us through the process along with her staff, Keigan Mull, Julia Friedman, Katie White, Alexandra Whittaker, John Catalfamo, and Kate Connor Linton. They were supported by a cast of very bright fellows and interns, Brishailah Brown, Chenoa Lee, and Tiffany Venmahavong.
I also want to thank our colleagues across the aisle. Especially I want to acknowledge today the role that Ambassador Robert Lighthizer played in this. There is something to be said for the experience of Capitol Hill and having been a former staff member. Time and again we thought we weren't going to get to where we wanted to be. And there were some moments, I would say, of incendiary commentary back and forth. Though there were many threats to leave the negotiation, it never materialized because a long walk through this Capitol can solve a lot of challenges.
Mr. Brady was invaluable as well, and his committee staff, Angela Ellard, Josh Snead, Blake Harden, and David Giordano all played a very important role here.
This really is a bipartisan agreement, and I hope and expect that the challenges to USMCA will allow H.R. 5430 to enjoy broad, bipartisan support.
I certainly am urging support for this because of the following: it bolsters workers' rights; it corrects earlier Trump administration backsliding on environmental obligations to get us to this trade agreement; it eliminated many big giveaways to companies that would have locked in high medicine prices, and it preserves Congress' freedom to legislate to bring those prices down; and it incorporates the strongest enforcement mechanisms, including specifically enhanced mechanisms for enforcing labor rights in any U.S. trade agreement.
There are three titles that are devoted to the United States Government and our role: monitoring and enforcement of USMCA partners' obligations, monitoring and enforcement of USMCA partners' environmental obligations, and more than $843 million over 4 years that will be dedicated to monitoring and enforcement of labor and environmental obligations, including funds for education and training of workers and inspectors.
We would not have gotten here today, however, without the important considerations of organized labor and the honorable men and women of the AFL/CIO and the Teamsters. We had broad support by including them in the negotiation and the discussions. This agreement is much the better for it, but it also is the signature accomplishment for all of us who had a chance to participate in it.
Every once in a while, Mr. Speaker, you get to participate in these it-will-never-happen moments, and I believe that this indeed is one of them. So we also thank the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, American Chemistry Council, Association for Accessible Medicines, Coalition of Services Industries, Farmers for Free Trade, Information Technology Industry, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Council of Textiles Organizations, The Software Alliance, and, indeed, many others.
I hope that this will serve as a template going forward for the two sides to reach a combination on many of the priorities that expire this year that we will include next year. But, also, I think it is an example of when men and women in this institution of goodwill--not just in the season--but men and women of goodwill can find common occurrence and common ground on an issue, in the end, that is really important to all members of the American family.
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December 19, 2019, on page H12267, ``*ERR08*'' inadvertently appeared at one place.
The online version has been corrected to delete the inadvertent text. ========================= END NOTE =========================
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Mr. NEAL. Mr Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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