U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said a breakthrough in talks with the Trump administration on the trade pact with Mexico and Canada could be imminent and that she wanted to pass the deal by the end of the year.
“We are moving positively in terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement. Again, it all comes down to ... enforcement,” she told reporters at a news conference “I do believe that if we can get this to the place it needs to be, which is imminent, that this can be a template for future trade agreements.”
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), signed by the three countries about a year ago in an effort to replace the $1 trillion North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), must be passed by lawmakers in all three countries, including the U.S. Congress.
Mexico has already ratified the new deal, while Canada has said it is waiting in order to move in tandem with the United States. The office of Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland was not immediately available for comment on Pelosi’s remarks.
U.S. President Donald Trump and other administration officials have complained that Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, are holding back the U.S. economy by slow-walking USMCA’s passage...
This was excerpted from 14 November 2019 edition of the Reuters Canada.