Daines, Fischer seek vote now on U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement

U.S. Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) last week urged the president to quickly push the trade agreement concluded between the United States, Mexico and Canada to Congress for consideration to provide more market certainty to their states’ farmers and before Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We are concerned that if the Administration waits until next year to send to Congress a draft implementing bill, passage of the USMCA [U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement] as negotiated will become significantly more difficult,” wrote Sens. Fischer and Daines, along with 10 other Republican senators, in a Nov. 20 letter sent to President Donald Trump.

The senators noted in their letter that the USMCA, which hasn’t yet been formally ratified by the three countries, would require congressional approval prior to being implemented.

“Your administration can preserve the option of passing the agreement this session by submitting to Congress as soon as possible – and before Nov. 30 – a copy of the final legal text of the agreement and a draft statement of administrative action,” the Republican members wrote.

Such action, the lawmakers wrote, would start the clock on a mandatory 30-day waiting period before a draft implementing bill can be submitted to Congress on a day when both chambers are in session.

“If you choose to pursue consideration of the USMCA before the end of the 115th Congress, we commit to working with you in a consultative manner to draft implementing legislation that could win our votes, as well as a majority in the House and Senate,” according to their letter.

Sens. Daines and Fischer separately also have pointed out that the USMCA is important to their home state farmers.

“Great work by @POTUS on securing the new #USMCA deal with Mexico and Canada,” Sen. Daines tweeted on Oct. 1. “This improved NAFTA agreement will help provide certainty for #Montana farmers, ranchers and businesses.”

“What I am hearing from producers and from ag associations around the state, people are happy about it – to be able to have those markets in Canada and Mexico open again,” Sen. Fischer told Nebraska’s Norfolk Daily News last month regarding the USMCA, which would replace NAFTA.

The ability to have a trade agreement now could benefit dairy and wheat markets by re-opening them, she said, and hopefully allow the United States to develop some new markets.

All three nations are tentatively set to sign the USMCA during the Group of 20 leaders’ summit being held in Argentina Nov. 30-Dec. 1.