Transcripts For CSPAN3 Senate Finance Committee Considers USMCA Trade Legislation 20240713

Toomey, were the only members of the committee to voice opposition to the trade deal which the house passed in december by a vote of 385 to 41. Were meeting today to consider hr5430, the United Statesmexicocanada agreement implementation act. And senator sasse isnt here but hes a new member of the committee, so i would like to welcome senator sasse to the committee. And hes in joining the committee on one of the most important pieces of legislation we can do this year. And im glad to have senator sasse as a new member of the committee. On december 13th, 2019, the senate received or the house of representatives received the bill to implement the usmca agreement. Under fast track rules, the committee cannot amend the bill. We will vote today only on whether to report the bill. Before we vote, senators who wish to make statements may do so. In the interest of time, i ask that the statements be limited to three minutes, and i know that my staff has had a discussion with everybodys staff about that. I hope that that will be satisfactory to the members. We do have a vote scheduled at 12 15, so i think its important that we get this done this morning. I think we can. After statements, im going to introduce staff and Administration Officials here to provide an overview of the bill and answer any questions. And then we will then vote on the bill. President trump promised to deliver a strong updated trade agreement with canada and mexico that would reflect the realities of the 21st amendment. He made this an issue in his campaign, so i suppose this has been an issue thats been around now for more than three years. He promised that it would command broad support. And i think President Trump has delivered. The house of representatives voted overwhelmingly and in a bipartisan way, support of the usmca bill. Now the senate must act. Im confident that this bill is going to make it to the president s desk, and i would like to express a few reasons why i think that way. Usmca will bring muchneeded certainty and real benefits to americas farmers, workers, and businesses. Farmers are Getting Better and more reliable Market Access which farmers badly need. Workers will see thousands of new jobs, particularly in high wage manufacturing industries. Businesses will have an agreement that reflect the realities of modern commerce including for the 1 and 3 10 u. S. Digital economy. Usmca corrects the enforcement flaws that very much plagued nafta and ensure that is ts tha parties will be held accountable to their commitments. The usmca has the support of hundreds of organizations representing a wide range of the economy, agriculture groups, business groups, and labor groups. I would like to enter into the record a nonexhaustive list of representatives of this support, and ill do that without objection. The road that we travel to arrive at this meeting today tested my patience at times. Take as an example, taking three or four months to get the president to renew remove steel and aluminum tariffs. I dont know how many white house meetings i attended where that was an issue. And i got tired of the words i like tariffs. And there are some aspects of this bill that i dont particularly like, but as i reflect on how we got here, im proud of the hard work of many individuals that made it possible to achieve a strong agreement and a bill that could garner broad support. And i would put at the top of that list the hard work that ambassador lighthizer put into it. The bill before us today has something in it for everyone. And its not often that we can say that about an implementing bill. I ask my colleagues to vote with me to favorably report the bill because id like to get this to the president s desk. Senator white. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. And happy new year to all and look forward to working with all our colleagues. Ive been trying to touch base with senator sasse and look forward to having him here. This morning, the finance Committee Kicks off 2020 with the new nafta. The last few years have delivered one trade gut punch after another to americas exporters, particularly our farmers and our manufacturers. It began when thenpresident ial candidate trump talked about pulling the United States out of nafta. And that set the tone. Its been followed by the administration driving away a number of our traditional economic allies. Three years of chaos, trade chaos, has hurt investment in america and caused farm bankruptcies to surge. Many foreign markets are more closed off to american exports today than they were on the day that the president took office. The finance committee now has an opportunity to provide a real measure of certainty and predictability to americans who want to grow things here, who want to make things here, add value to them here, and ship those products around the world. That is what is on offer this morning. The new nafta makes a few key changes to our approach to trade that im going to address briefly. First on the enforcement issue, year after year, decade after decade, president s and lawmakers of both Political Parties have paid lip service to the importance of enforcing trade laws. But all along, what this country did on enforcement was just too weakless. It didnt have any teeth, and it was too slow to protect american jobs from trade chiefs. In my view, workers saw through all this lip service a long time ago. When the Trump Administration sent up the first version of the new nafta agreement it sure just looked like more of the status quo. It didnt cut it. The language that they offered on enforcement basically didnt enforce anything. It was just pretty much business at usual. So, i as ranking democrat on this side reached out to our colleague from ohio, senator brown, who has been a crusader for tough labor Law Enforcement as long as anybody in public life. We said we were going to fix it. And senator brown and i reached out to many of you. Many of us on this side contributed to the enforcement package. We talked to many on the other side. And senator brown and i developed a proposal thats all about putting power in the hands of American Workers and American Businesses so they can fight back when theyre getting ripped off by trade chiefs. And it responds to what we actually heard in our communities. Its a whole lot faster than what we had before. Its a whole lot stronger than what we had before. And what senator brown and i came up with is about putting trade enforcement boots on the ground, helping to identify when factories in mexico violate labor rules. Then our country can penalize the violators, protect the american jobs they tried to undercut. The enforcement process will take a fraction of the time it has in the past. No more forcing American Businesses and workers to wait around for what seems like eons while trade chiefs rip them off. So, after senator brown and i did that, we took our proposal over to our colleagues in the house and we made it clear we wanted to work with them. We wanted input, support. After we did that, we went to the Trump Administration and said if you want our support on the new nafta, youve got to build on the tough trade enforcement proposal that we have been suggesting. We said this is a prereq to getting nafta done right. When you combine this allin approach with labor rights and environment, you also shut down the corporate race to the bottom on cheap wages and lax standards. T it its about raising everybody else to our standards and taking action when they fall short. So, i especially want to thank senator brown. Im sure well hear from him for his leadership. Let me make clear while he and i have our names on this enforcement package, i can look right down the road. Senator carper, senator bennett, every one of these colleagues contributed to this package, and i know a number of republicans have an interest in these issues as well. I want to wrap up with comments with respect to something nobody talked about when the first nafta came up. And thats technology and digital trade. Digital trade wasnt part of the original nafta because it basically didnt exist when nafta was first negotiated. Everybody in this room carries a smartphone that would have met the definition of a super computer back in the early 1990s. But when it comes to rules regarding digital trade and tech, our trade laws have remained stuck in the mindset of decades ago. That is a problem today because the internet is now the shipping lane of the 21st century. Obviously technology and digital trade are right at the center of a modern economy. They account for millions of goodpaying jobs in our country. And most important, technology is woven into just about every major american industry. Its woven into autos. Its woven into manufacturing, health care, farming. You can go one after another. When you talk about fighting for new rules on digital trade, you are talking about creating and protecting red, white, and blue jobs in a whole host of important goodpaying industries. The new nafta will fight back against trade chiefs who want to eat the seed corn of this technological treasure trove, this innovation we have seen in tech. It will do more to protect our intellectual property and protect American Companies from being shaken down for their data. By including established law colleagues, it will help guarantee that Small Technology entrepreneurs have a shot at Building Successful Companies in a field now dominated by a small number of goliaths. On agriculture, new nafta helps us send more dairy to canada. More our wine is going to make it to shelves and stores abroad. It ends harmful discrimination against wheat grown here. So, these are all significant areas of improvement. In my home state, one out of four jobs revolves around trade. The trade jobs often pay better than do the nontrade jobs and almost all of them are small and medium size. I want to wrap up with just two very quick points, mr. Chairman. First, i think we all ought to thank ambassador Bob Lighthizer who i call the hardest working man in the trade agreement business. He has talked with a lot of us on multiple occasions. He is a straight shooter. You cant ask for more than that, and colleagues, i guess thats what you get when you have an alum of the Senate Finance committee, former staff director. Senator sasse, were glad youre here. And i want to close with one last point. The legislation may be this bill were taking up today may be the most significant economic issue the senate addresses in 2020. Obviously the senate will also be holding an impeachment trial in the days ahead. Both of these are extraordinarily important matters that deserve to be addressed by the senate with utmost seriousness. The new nafta agreement must not be used as a convenient excuse to shut down any other business before the senate. Mr. Chairman, its been a pleasure to work with you. Weve got a lot to do in 2020. Im looking forward to going ahead with our Bipartisan Health care efforts, for example. So, weve got a lot to do in 2020, and i thank you for arranging this morning. Thank you very much for your cooperation. This is the order of the first four or five that i have on the list here. Mr. Crabrel, for three minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. I too welcome senator sasse to the committee and i want to thank you mr. Chairman and senator wyden for your hard work on this. I also agree with both of your supportive comments. I want to thank ambassador lighthizer and President Trump for helping us get to this place as well. We are voting today on the u. S. Mexicocanada agreement is welcomed news. Ive long maintained that the original north america trade agreement, nafta, needed to be renegotiated. Goods received unfair treatment among trading partners. It also didnt provide sufficient Market Access nor did it address market structures and trade practices in the dairy industry. President trump and u. S. Trade representative Robert Lighthizers forceful negotiations on behalf of americas farmers and workers fulfills one of the president s Core Campaign promises. Many americans will see benefits of this updated trade deal with two of our countries three largest partners. The agreement is projected to raise u. S. Real gdp by over 66 billion and create 176,000 jobs. It will expand Market Access for farmers for dairy, puoultry, an egg producers. By requiring the use of scientific standards, it will prevent food safety and animal or plant measures from being used as protectionist trade restrictions. It eliminates canadas class six and seven milk programs that hindered u. S. Exports to third country markets. These changes are protected to increase dairy exports to canada by 270 million, total annual u. S. Agriculture and food exports are expected to increase by 2. 2 billion. These are just a few of the benefits that American Business and Rural Business stand to gain. Usmca will be the first Free Trade Agreement with a digital trade chapter, creating a foundation to help spur the development of trade in Digital Development and services. To that end, it will establish information sharing tools to help more than 120,000 american small and medium sized businesses that export goods and services to canada and mexico take advantage of the usmca. I applaud President Trumps decision to renegotiate this pact and commend for getting this done. Senator menendez. Thank you. When i served in the house of representatives, i took a strong stand against nafta. I did so because nafta lacked strong enforceable rules to protect workers and ensure that American Families actually benefit from trade. I feared nafta would only intensify outsourcing of manufacturing jobs and contribute to stagnant wages for the american middle class, and unfortunately i was right. So, i was concerned that usmca would repeat these same mistakes. But now thanks to the, wo of congressional democrats, usmca includes upgraded rules to protect workers across the continent. And because of these improvements i will support this agreement. However, this negotiation was not only a clarence to right naftas wrongs, it was an opportunity to Lay Foundation for future growth in americas most competitive agencies. We didnt fully seize that opportunity. Im disappointed that usmca lacks strong intellectual property protections that promote jobs in new jersey and across the country. Future trade agreements must do more to encourage, protect, and reward american innovation. And finally we have to be clear about the oversight that lies ahead of us to make our trade policy work for American Families. This implementing bill gives tremendous leeway to choose whether to enforce certain labor violations. It gives ust the power to grant or deny individual Automotive Companies additional time to comply with the complex rules of origin. And these are serious concerns. Even beyond u. S. Mca, weve seen the trade policy sow confusion in other areas, a china deal that may or may not put an end to the intellectual theft, Cyber Espionage for over a decade. We can debate whether these were the right policy changes, but we can agree that ustr must be transparent with the American People about the choices they make. In order to do that, i plan to introduce a bill to accomplish an Inspector General for the ustr. Nearly every other cabinet level agency has a statutory Inspector General general. Its time ustr has one as well. Im looking forward to working with members of the committee and you mr. Chairman to bring a new era of accountability to our trade policy to the benefit of American Workers and their families. Thank you, mr. Chairman for your leadership, for your sotrog advocacy of the United Statescanada trade agreement which also stands for the United States marine corps also. I want to recognize the significance of ambassador lighthizer to get this done. They worked overtime to get this done. Crafting a final product that could gain the support of so many stakeholders is no easy task especially in todays climate politically. I would like to say on behalf of the farmers, ranchers, and growers all over the country, they made one thing very Crystal Clear over the past year, times are challenging right now in farm country. They have been ever since 2014. We continue to be in a very rough patch. Now, we passed a farm bill a little more than a year ago to provide farmers and ranchers with the certainty they need to be successful producers, but as important as the farm bill is, ive heard from folks around the country it is clear they need reliable markets both domestically and abroad. And for this reason, i will be supporting the passage. I want to Say Something about the original nafta agreement. Back in 2018, the countries acounted for 30 of the u. S. Agriculture exports. Increase since nafta signed into law. For exports to mexico, the value has grown 316 to 19. 1 billion in 218. It seems to me thats pretty good for a trade act that has been described as the worse trade bill ever written. I have noticed that because i helped write the bill with the beloved chairman of the House Committee at that time. And according to the u. S. International trade commission, this is going to provide even more Growth Potential for americas future. Now, what ive been hearing from kansans is what we need to do is get the trade deal done as app, get it done. If we are not leading the charge in setting the rules, other countries will and they are. Lbj once said sometimes you just have to hunker down like a jackass in a hailstorm and thats what our farmers have been doing the last four years. I think its good advice, theres a lot of trade cactus out there, trade tariff cactus. I just dont think its a good idea that we try to sit on every damn one of them. I look forward to the final passage of the u. S. Mexicocanada trade agreement. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Im reminded today as we celebrate john thunes 59th birthday of an occasion that occurred in the white house. We had all the nations governors gathered with president clinton and his cabinet and one of the things we talked about was nafta and why we were interested in pursuing nafta. He said, he talked about world war ii, the end of world war ii, the rest of the world was on its back and we were the 800 pound gorilla in the room. We allowed other nations to put up trade barriers to keep goods and services out and we allowed them to do so to us without impediment. He said the reason we need nafta is not to allow other countries to sell their stuff to us, but to make sure that our businesses have the opportunity to sell to them. And that put nafta in that context. Was it everything we hoped it would be . No. I would like to say if it isnt perfect, make it better. It wasnt perfect and we need to make it better. When our friend Robert Lighthizer was nominated to be the trade rep, he came to see all of us. I suggested to him that he reach out to Michael Froman, trade rep during the clinton administration. Michael had been involved in negotiating something called the transpacific partnership. They negotiated pieces of that trade agreement with canada and mexico, 12 nations in all, 40 of the worlds trade. I said to mr. Lighthizer, i said before you go in, find out what was negotiated in the last administration. I urge him to put Michael Froman on the speed dial and as we went forward, to his credit, they have communicated a lot in the last couple of years. I think its been good for those negotiations. I wish we had not walked away. I wish the last administration or this administration hadnt pulled us out of tpp. I think the idea we were leading a 12nation group for trading, we were the leader, 40 of the worlds trade, china on the outside looking in. And why we walked away from that agreement, im not sure. But we did and now we have usmca before us. Is it better than nafta . You bet it is. And we want to commend those who worked hard to make it better, especially want to commend the trade rep, our trade rep who does work hard. I want to commend our colleagues sharon and our Ranking Member and democrats and republicans who worked hard. I want to thank especially ben cardin is not here yet, sheldon is not here yet, but they worked with me and others on the environmental provisions to make sure they were enforceable. I understand in the house, the house passed this bill by 385 to 41 bipartisan support, and i think this measure deserves that same kind of bipartisan support here. Thank you senator carper. Now senator cornyn for three minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. This hearing has been a long time in the making and im glad were finally getting around to the usmca. I want to commend the president and the u. S. Trade representative for their hard work and determination in achieving this goal despite consistent political head winds. I also want to thank chairman grassley and himself considering an issue important to my state in a product called sotal. I believe that the provisions in the agreement, absent some clarification in the Committee Report would contravene congressional content that prohibits distilled spirits products. Well look forward to working with the chairman and the house on that port language. As a texan, ive long understood and appreciated the close economic relationship with our neighbors to the north and to the south. The u. S. Chamber of commerce estimates that nafta supports about 13 million jobs in the United States. In 2018, texas exported more than 137 billion in goods and services to canada and mexico. This trade supports an estimated 950,000 jobs in texas and has helped make our states economy the 10th largest in the world, not just in the country but in the world. Much of this is made possible because of nafta which, as we know, took effect a quarter of a century ago and a lot has happened since that time. As beneficial as nafta has been in creating positive changes, we can all agree its time for an update, and thats precisely what the usmca will do, brings nafta into the 21st century, provide economic certainty, reduce tariffs, and greater opportunity for all sectors including our farmers, ranchers, and producers, manufacturers, and goods and services. Itll provide needed infrastructure along the border as well. I work closely with ambassador lighthizer and the administration to secure funding for the north American Development bank which im glad was included in the agreement. This will provide 215 million to strengthen infrastructure and improve quality of life in our border communities as well as those of our neighbors. Mr. Chairman, while i will while i am sympathetic to a number of issues that i believe our friend the senator from pennsylvania will raise here, i do believe that this is a good agreechlt it agreement. It is not a perfect agreement. And on that, i think it deserves my support. Thank you very much. Now senator brown for three minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. As many members of this committee know, i voted no 25 years ago on nafta and voted against every trade agreement since because every trade agreement has been written by corporations to maximize corporate profits and reward Corporate Executives always at the expense of workers and the middle class. Weve seen the consequences, shrinking middle class. President trumps initial draft of this agreement was just more of the same, another procorporate trade deal written by special interests. But Ranking Member widen and i fought for changes along side Speaker Pelosi in labor leader who is take steps to put workers at the center of the trade policy. We know why corporations move jobs overseas. They can pay lower wages and exploit workers. The only way to stop that race to the bottom is stopping labor standards. Thats why we authored a completely new way of Holding Corporations accountable. For the First Time Ever, a worker in mexico can report through an anonymous hotline that her employer is violating her right to form a union. First improvement to enforcing the labor trade agreement since weve been negotiating trade agreements. And when mexican workers have the power to form real unions and to negotiate for higher wages, it helps American Workers. Right now mexican workers can be paid as little as 6. 50 a day, not an hour, a day. And weve been asking American Workers to compete with that. Weve already heard some critics say brownwiden will force mexican wages to rise. To that, i plead guilty. Thats the entire point, to take away the incentive for American Companies to shut down production in mansfield and cleveland and dayton and move those jobs to mexico. I want to thank chairman widen. Without him endorsing this prose poll and pushing it into the face of this administration and we made the president and mr. Lighthizer understand there was no agreement unless workers were at the center of the agreement. I would like to thank nora todd and my staff for her unrelenting work for years often thinking we were in the wilderness but coming forward and making this happen. We must be straight with American Workers. One deal is not going to bring back auto plants like the president promises. I have real concerns that the auto rules of origin are much weaker than the administration says. I ask the chairman and Ranking Member to commit to working with me to ensure companies comply with these rules and to strengthen them if we need to. And we still have more work to do to make our trade agreements more proworker. Im voting yes because by including brownwiden, democrats have made this agreement much more pro worker and set an important precedent that brownwiden must be included in every single future trade agreement. Thank you. Now senator bennett. Thank you for holding this mark up and free to leadership on this matter. Trade with canada and mexico is vital for our countrys economy and certainly for colorado economy from businesses on the front range to farmers and ranchers in the west slope and the eastern plains. Last year alone we exported 2. 7 billion in goods and services to canada and mexico. While nafta helped establish the trading partnerships, ive long said we should modernize nafta as the economy develops. While President Trumps initial work fell short, the work we did to fill the gap ensuring more resources and tools to hold accountable on labor and on the environment. Im thankful for the work on both sides of the aisle to get us to this point and i support usmca because it not only maintains key export markets for colorado. It brings north american trade into the 21st century. At the same time, we have to be honest. Passing the usmca will not ease the enormous pain and uncertainty from the feckless trade policy over the last three years. Every day the president s unplikt able behavior casts a shadow over consumers, Small Businesses, and agriculture. This year alone theres an increase of foreign bankruptcies by 23 . What theyre exporting overseas has dropped like a stone. Every day farmers and ranchers are left to wonder if the president s next tweet will collapse the value of crops theyve already planted. And unlike this administration, they know that future growth will come from new fastgrowing overseas markets. Instead of securing those markets, the president is seeding them to foreign competitors while forcing hardworking americans to bare the cost of his tariffs and trade bill. While im grateful congress is taking swift action, todays vote is not enough. We must do more enough to grow opportunities and lift up standards throughout the world and this Administration Must act responsibly for the sake of American Workers, farmers, ranches, and businesses. Thank you mr. Chairman. It looks to me like we have thune, portman, and then warner. This mark up has been a Long Time Coming for the farmers and ranchers in my home state of south dakota and around the country who are struggling. Today we have an opportunity to move forward on a trade deal that would hopefully bring them relief. Thanks to low commodity prices, livestock prices, natural disasters, and trade disputes, farmers and ranchers have had a tough few years. When i talked to farmers and ranchers in south dakota, they continue to emphasize the most important thing washington can do to boost the economy is take action on trade agreements, to expand markets. Farmers and ranchers need access to new and expanded markets for their products and they need certainty about what International Markets are going to look like in the future. Usmca will help meet those needs. Youll preserve and expand farmers access to two markets and give certainty to what the markets look like long term. Im particularly pleased with the improvements the agreement makes for u. S. Dairy products. South dakota experienced a major dairy expansion over the past few years and this will benefit u. S. Dairy producers where u. S. Dairy sells have been restricted. The trade commission estimates it will boost dairy exports by 277 million. The agreement will expand Market Access for poultry and egg producers and make it easy for u. S. Producers to export wheat to canada. And of course the benefits for the agriculture industry are just one part of this agreement. Virtually every sector of our economy will benefit from the United Statesmexicocanada agreement for manufacturing to Digital Services to the automotive industry. And it should come as no surprise then that the u. S. Mca will create 176,000 jobs and increase wanls for workers. This is not to say that i dont think the administration could and should have gone further in certain areas, for example as a consistent supporter of country of origin labelling, i wish the administration would have been able to find a solution to restore cool, add value to our domestic ag products and eliminate the risk of future trade sanctions. But we cannot let the perfect become the enemy of the good. There are thousands of farmers and ranchers in my state and around the country who are waiting for the relief this agreement will bring. It is past time to pass this trade deal. I will be voting yes on usmca, and i would encourage my colleagues on this committee and in the United States senate to do the same. Thank you mr. Chairman. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you, and i want to particularly commend the team at uscr for negotiating this. Bob lighthizer is not with us this morning because hes working on the next agreement. But its great to have some of the staff here. I want to particularly point out john melle who is a professional staffer with whom i had the chance to work at ustr. He was the chief staff negotiator. This has been over two years of hard work. Frankly it sat in the house for over a year. Its exciting that were finally here and going to get this done because its good for ohio and good for america. It also is important to me that there was a strong vote in the house because it shows that trade can be bipartisan and that we do have a consensus in this country that we want to export more, we want to do more trading because tradings good for our country. I support usmca because i believe it is a protrade agreement. It opens new markets. That was talked about earlier. John thune just talked about it. Benefits for agriculture, thats certainly true. But also in other ways. It reduces trade uncertainty. With the first ever digital trade chapter for nafta. Really important because this is increasingly part of trade, particularly in ohio. Got a lot of Internet Companies that are going to be benefitting by this. It also eases the customs burden for small sellers by raising the protection caps. This is great success, and congratulations on tough negotiating there. That helps a lot of Small Businesses in ohio. I already mentioned the internet economy rules that avoid the kind of digital protectionism that otherwise could happen. But also this level the Playing Field that was talked about earlier. By colleague from ohio and others have talked about this. The rules of origin is really important to ohio whe. Were the number two auto state in the country. Auto manufacturing has become increasingly hightech. And these rules of origin for cars are important because theyve begun to leak as parts have come in from china and frankly other countries that have been free riders on the nafta preference. I think thats appropriate. I dont know why its considered to be inappropriate to say if you have an agreement with the United States, well give you this preference. If you dont have an agreement, you cant free ride on our agreement. Its going to encourage other countries to have trade with us. I think its a good thing for expanding trade. The rules of origin also require that 70 of the steel in vehicles made in north america are made in north america. Thats the First Time Ever as well. And i think thats also important. And this is all in usmca but not nafta. The standards talked about were promises on paper but not enforceable under nafta. Now they are enforceable. It updates standards as well. Thats important just to bring a 25yearold agreement up to speed. We had to do that. Is it perfect . No, but this is a big improvement. And a vote for nafta is a vote for these improvements. A vote against it is a vote for the status quo. Im pleased that sherry and gary in columbus, ohio, are now going to be able to have more access to canada and mexico, our biggest trading partners from ohio by far. Im pleased that frank, a dairy farmer whose farm i visited is going to sell more to canada and get prices up. Im pleased that auto workers around the state are going to have more level Playing Field. This is critical and why i think its so important that we do move forward with this agreement today. Congratulations chairman. I look forward to being a yes today and getting this on to the senate floor as soon as possible. Now senator warner for three minutes. Thank you mr. Chairman. As we know strong trading relationships improve our economy. Im optimistic this will help american farmers, ports, manufacturers, and workers. As others pointed out this deal addresses issues like digital trade that nafta couldnt anticipate and decreases market barriers to Agricultural Products that are huge points of concern for virginia farmers. I want to add congratulations to Ranking Member widen and my friend senator brown and our house colleagues because now this agreement finally includes strong Labor Protections to ensure that companies in our partner nations are held accountable and the American Workers can compete on a level Playing Field. Overall im hopeful this agreement will provide the consistency and stability that the Business Community needs. At the same time, i worry that the process that led us to this point may result in reduced credibility and trust from our allies and closest trading partners. Throughout the negotiation process, the president s efforts to levy tariffs on canada and mexico and to make repeated threats to withdraw from nafta or to needlessly close the border with mexico have exemplified the troubling approach weve seen from the administration. Our trade relationships are a key form of diplomacy, allowing us to increase u. S. Influence abroad and deepen our relationships with foreign partners in ways that benefit not just american prosperity, but u. S. Security and leadership. Alienated our closest allies with the misuse of National Security tariffs is counterproductive and endangers american security. Thats why senator tumi and i have offered the trade Authority Act to curve abuses of the 232 authority. Im hopeful that with ratification to this deal, this committee will have the opportunity to reexamine those efforts in a bipartisan fashion. Finally and i made agreement with the Ranking Member not to raise this issue during these considerations, but i do want to take note that i have serious concerns with the inclusion of safe harbor language modelled on section 230 of the Communications Decency act. Congress is beginning at this point an important bipartisan debate about whether section 230 is working as intended. And many including many prominent civil Rights Groups believe that section 230 has allowed internet intermediaries to ignore misuse of their platforms by bad actors. This is an issue that i think needs our attention and i hope we can revisit in a bipartisan way. Again, i commend everybody who worked on this. As i mentioned earlier, its going to be unique to follow shared ground on a piece of legislation. Thank you senator warner. Now senator langford. Mr. Chairman, thank you. About three years ago, President Trump announced he was going to revisit nafta. A lot of folks around the country that benefitted from nafta long term looked at it with a little bit of a nervous eye. Nafta has put for the last 25 years a really good Playing Field for having low or no tariffs across north america. What weve seen is billions of dollars in trade in canada and mexico being by far our largest trading partners. The last two and a half years, the Trump Administration through their negotiations and through word through the media back and forth of whats going to happen and whats not going to happen at the end of the day have locked in a trade deal. It is a bipartisan trade deal. It is a message to every other country around the world that the United States is going to be a tough trading partner to be able to get into negotiations. But at the end of it, we want to get into an actual trade deal and to get something signed and done. My conversations with the president over the last 2 1 2 years have circled over and over again is your goal to have high tariffs or is your goal to have low and no tariffs. Again and again he repeated to me privately and again and again stated in different ways publicly, his goal is to get to low or no tariffs so we can up trade, but it has to be a fair process at the end of the day. This revision of nafta gets us back to an agreement with canada and mexico that gets back to low or no tariffs across north america. It takes the vast majority of the existing zero tariff treatment from nafta, forwards that, and deals with some of the issues that weve dealt with in oklahoma for a long time like wheat. When you drive across the western and north part of my state, you see beautiful wheat fields. Those wheat fields feed our kids and families. When they go into canada, canada has a different way of grading that wheat that drops the price there and has been a problem for oklahoma farmers for a very long time. This deal deals with that. This deals with digital trade, intellectual property, multiple other updates to agriculture goods like dairies, eggs, and poultry. Theres a lot of good thats in this. Im glad theyve kept a lot of things that have been beneficial in nafta in the past and have done a sufficient update to this in the days ahead because it desperately needed an update. And after 2 1 2 years of consternation across the country of will we get a trade agreement done, were getting a trade agreement done, and i hope it sets a platform for every other country negotiating with us to say we actually want to get trade agreements done and to get everyone to the table and get something finalized. With that, i thank the chairman. Theres a lot of this that i would have done very, very difficultly. Im glad were sending a message worldwide that were open to trade again. Thank you chairman grassley and Ranking Member widen for holding this mark up to consider the trade agreement. International trade when done right helps businesses and consumers alike by expanding opportunity, reducing costs, and boosting Economic Growth. In evaluating any trade deal, including the usmca, i use two key benchmarks. First, trade deals must help level the Playing Field for New Hampshire and our countrys innovative businesses competing in the economy. Second, trade deals must contain strong Enforcement Mechanisms that protect workers, consumers, and the environment. Thanks to the diligence and good faith efforts of both democratic and republican negotiators, the bipartisan usmca meets both of these standards and i support implementing this agreement. In terms of competition, the usmca boosts American Businesses by modernizing our current trade agreement which predated internet commerce to protect the flow of digital trade and to better safeguard intellectual property. The agreement also cuts red tape for small exporters by allowing Electronic Filing of customs forms, an important provision for a Small Business state like New Hampshire. In addition to cutting red tape, the deal cuts costs for Small Businesses by increasing the share of shipments to canada and mexico with duty free status. Further the usmca removes long standing barriers that prevented Dairy Farmers in New Hampshire and other states from accessing the canadian market. When it comes to enforcement, the bipartisan deal that democrats negotiated contains major improvements to the agreement. First off i want to commend senators brown and widen on their efforts to ensure that the agreement contains strong labor Enforcement Mechanisms which helps remove incentives which would otherwise encourage the outsourcing of jobs. The bipartisan agreement also helps protect consumers from soaring pharmaceutical prices. And the usmca contains funding from Environmental Protection and measures to help ensure that the administration follows through with enforcement of environmental provisions. Id like to commend senator carper for his work on developing and incorporating those provisions in the agreement. The bipartisan usmca will work to increase the competitiveness of American Businesses while ensuring the protections in the agreement are effectively enforced. And i will vote in committee and on the senate floor to support the agreement. Thank you. Thank you. Now seine or nator danes. Today marks a very important step for farmers, ranchers, and Small Businesses across montgomemontana. Advancing this to out of the Senate Finance committee will bring us one step closer to providing more certainty and better access to markets for montana agriculture. I think its worth noting you look at the top four largest trading partners in the United States in terms of dollars, its china, canada, mexico, japan. Its important to stay focused on these large trading partners. Weve got the good deal with japan done recently, the phase one china deal is imminent, and now were going to be moving forward with canada and mexico. This is progress. You think about that 95 of the worlds consumers live outside the United States. As i think about my farmers and ran ranchers back home, its about access to the markets. My farmers and ranchers across montana tell me about the importance of trade and the need to move this critical agreement forward. I repeatedly call on congress to take action on this trade deal. Im glad to see it near the finish line. In montana, ag is very much a way of life. This will ensure we maintain critical access to markets so we can maintain it and expand it. This trade is expected to create almost 180,000 new american jobs, boost the economy by 70 billion in gdp. In 2018 alone, montana had 731 million to canada as well as mexico. For producers, this would help provide certainty and alleviate some of the challenges and obstacles they faced over a very tough season back home in montana. Additionally not only advancing usmca will improve trading relationships, it allows more focus and energy to be opened in montana ag, energy, and Small Businesses. Ongoing efforts to reduce the Playing Field, the critical markets continues to be essential and i will continue to work the chairman and the administration to get it done. Thank you mr. Chairman on your leadership and look forward to supporting it today and voting for it on the senate floor soon. Senator cortez. Thank you chairman grassley, Ranking Member widen, ambassador lighthizer. I want to begin by thanking you and your staff for all of the good work and literally tireless work that you have done to negotiate a bipartisan agreement that begins to provide certainty to our businesses here and at home in nevada. Trade is one of the top certains concerns in nevada. Ive heard from 17 counties in my state that saving means stability. Nevada exports more than 1. 8 billion in goods to canada and mexico which creates thousands of american jobs in my home state. And nevadaens need a trade deal that protects workers and businesses of all sizes the ability to plan so they can crow. Neva nevadans are concerned with Market Access, a trade war with china, and this usmca agreement. I believe weve been making progress in a bipartisan way to improve and modernize these trade agreements. However, i remain concerned that the president and his policymaking by tweet undercuts the effect of bipartisan work that is being done. It impacts markets and the ability of nevada businesses to plan for the future. And nevadas workers should have a peace of mind that their jobs wont be threatened by erratic policy making in washington. During this process, i made it clear i supported the incorporation of the widenbrown proposal and i want to thank my colleagues for fighting to incorporate this proposal into the trade agreement. Im thankful we were able to come to bipartisan compromise. I am proud of nevadas strong tradition of organized labor. That is why i understand how important it is to protect and fight for unions, to strengthen their bargaining rights so that working families can organize for safer workplaces and better wages. I vow to fight to ensure workers rights are protected in any trade deal because labor was at the table when these deals were negotiated, we were able to come to an acceptable agreement. Im also pleased to see in this trade deal that the dairy industry in nevada will benefit as well. I acknowledge that this deal is not perfect. It alone will not serve outsourcing and economic inequality. I know our friends in the Environmental Community have concerns about this agreement falling short on addressing the climate crisis. I share their sentiment that this administration has failed to address the climate crisis. Thats why i will continue to fight for Renewable Energy technologies and the protection of precious Natural Resources in the environment. These concerns need to continue to be addressed and i look forward to working with my colleagues to address these concerns. Overall, i am pleased to be able to support this bipartisan trade agreement today. Thank you. Thank you, senator. Now senator tommy. I think its worth noting how we got this process started. Nafta is after all a free and fair and reciprocal trade agreements. Theres 0 tariffs on 100 of goods across our borders, 0 tariffs of agriculture products and very, very few obstructions of other forms. Nafta needed to be updated because its an old agreement and the economy changed. But not the real reason this agreement was negotiated. The real reason is we have a trade deficit with mexico and the administration deemed that to be unacceptable. So, i think its useful to think about usmca as consisting of nafta with primarily two categories of changes. One is a category of changes that modernize it, takes into effect and basically codifies existing practices in the digital economy. But the second category are the changes that are meant to diminish trade and investment. And this, my colleagues, is what i think is wrong with this agreement. Its the first time were ever going to go backwards on a trade agreement. The countrys specific rules of origins are completely antithetical to a continental Free Trade Agreement and designed. The sun set clause, this thing goes poof in 16 years. Its gone. That is designed to have a Chilling Effect on investment. The isds mechanism is gone virtually in this agreement, and the new negotiations that came in the last few months, labor provisions, and the removal of the intellectual property protections for biologics take us backwards. Be careful about the iotc report. Theres no Economic Growth here. Theres a tiny bit of growth they attribute to the codification of the existing trade practices and digital technology, but they acknowledge that the trade restricting provisions will diminish jobs and Economic Growth. They dont attempt to quantify the adverse effect of the sun set clause. Finally on process, in significant ways it seems to me that this committee is getting rolled and we shouldnt do that. Were being made increasingly irrelevant in the process of trade negotiation which is a constitutional responsibility assigned to us. Tpa is a delegated norauthority the administration and this is not in compliance with tpa. Case in point, an exampling here, were not having a mock mark up today. As we all know, this is not a mock up of a draft implementing legislation. This bill was already passed by the house. Theres no amendments going to be permitted, no changes to be made, and in the past every single trade agreement has come before the committee for the express purpose of allowing us to discover whether theres a consensus about changes which can be recommended to the administration in the form of amendments. All of that is being dispensed with. So, mr. Chairman, in my view, weve taken a Free Trade Agreement that needed modernization, and there is modernization, but then being dispensed with. So, mr. Chairman, in my view, weve taken a Free Trade Agreement that needed modernization, and there is modernization, but then weve slapped on all of these provisions designed to restrict trade and investment. Well get no Economic Growth out of this and we, the senate, and the Senate Finance committee are allowing ourselves to be thank you, senator toomey. Now, itll be senator casey and im going to step out for a minute. So after caseys three minutes are up, senator sas is up. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much. As the Auditor General of pennsylvania way back in the 1990s, i opposed nafta. That was in 1997 to be specific. In the interim period as a public official in our state, i fought a lot of battles for workers and for worker rights. When President Trump came into office in 2017, i was somewhat hopeful that he would stay true to his word on trade. However, in 2018, he signed a corporate trade deal. Which only improved only was improved, i should say, by the herculean efforts by democrats and the men and women of organized labor. I applaud those efforts over many, many months now. And ill support this agreement. We must be cleareyed, though, about what this agreement doesnt do. And and what it does do and what it doesnt do. This agreement will not fix outsourcing. It will not do nearly enough to bring jobs home or rebuild our communities, which have been devastated by trade over time. But this this agreement is a measurable improvement on the status quo and represents a step forward in what trade proposals of the future should look like. I applaud the work of Speaker Pelosi, senator brown, senator wyden, and other members of this committee who have fought to get this to a better place on nafta rewrite. Our state of pennsylvania has paid a high price when it comes to trade. And we must continue to move forward to ensure the mistakes of the past arent repeated and new mistakes are not made. For example, the Economic Policy institute estimates that nafta eliminated 850,000 jobs nationally. Most of them in manufacturing. According to a 2015 Economic Policy institute report, pennsylvania lost 314,000 manufacturing jobs. 5. 7 of total employment between 1998 and 2013. 314,000 manufacturing jobs. The president said hes for workers but he seems to work only for corporations. Make no mistake about it. Democrats and labor unions are the reason this agreement has enforceable labor standards. Democrats and labor unions are the only reason this agreement has enforceable standards on the environment. Just as it is clear the president s track record on workers and families. President trump gave large corporations tax incentives to offshore manufacturing jobs. He eliminated the deduction for union dues. He is trying to decimate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care act. And hes appointed antiworker corporate judges to virtually every level of our nations judiciary. The agreement this agreement that were considering now is, as i said, a measurable improvement. Unfortunately, the agreement the president signed in october of 2018 contained zero improvements to trade enforcement. And was deficient in both labor and Environmental Protections. Democratic efforts made todays vote possible. And i applaud those efforts. Thank you, mr. President or mr. Chairman. Thank you for your efforts on the Labor Protections as well. Senator sas for his first day here and his opening address to the committee. Thank you, Ranking Member. Opening address feels a little too august. To all of you on the committee, you know there are good reasons why this is regularly referred to as the most powerful committee in the congress. The work here affects moms and dads, farmers and ranchers, patients and doctors, taxpayers present and future. And so, chairman, i thank you for having me serve on this committee and for your welcome. And its good to follow you in your chairmanship on the second committee. I am also extremely eager to have my first vote on the committee be the u. S. Mexico, canada agreement. Usmca should have been done a long, long time ago. It languished in the house for reasons that arent really that defensible but its great were finally going to have the opportunity to vote on this trade agreement. Senator toomey made a bunch of important comments i agree with as well. And yet, we need to, given political realities, get this agreement across the finish line. The usmca comes at a critical time for nebraska agriculture. Heres the bad news. Farmers have experienced low commodity prices, excessive supply, weather disasters, global trade disruptions, and the farm economy as the senator from kansas has said is embarrassingly sluggish. But here is the good news. The usmca trade agreement strengthens our trading relationships with north american neighbors. It is also the foundation for some future trade agreements in terms of modernization of rules and regulations, laws and obligations with conformity, transparency, and verification. According to the Usda Economic Research service, nebraska exported almost 7 billion of Agricultural Commodities in 2018. That puts nebraska sixth in the nation in trade and ag exports behind california, iowa, illinois, minnesota, and texas. If you know your demography, nebraska is by far the lowest population state of those big six. So the value of nebraska exports consistently accounts for 30 of our states total agricultural receipts. The usmca trade agreement provides security, Market Access, longterm stability and growth. Not only in quantity but also in the value of our products sold to north American Trading partners. This agreement further lays the foundation for future agreements for protection against foul play from china. More mutuallybeneficial trading agreements will strengthen our position against exploitative trade practices. Mr. Chairman and members of this committee, i am proud of efforts by the u. S. Trade representative. Ambassador lighthizer is away on different work. But as one of only two republicans who voted against his confirmation because i have a more profree trade view than the ambassador on a lot of issues, i want to compliment him and his team on the way they have dialogued with us and worked with us. The ambassador has been a prince of a man in terms of his willingness to engage and educate and tutor. So heres the bottom line. Nebraskas ready to keep feeding the world. And we need open trade markets to do so. We should get the job done. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator young for three minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ranking member. As all my colleagues have iterated, i am pleased weve come to this moment in the finance committee. Its taken a bit longer than many of us would have liked. And i hope in the future, Free Trade Agreements can be considered more expeditiously. But nonetheless, here we have this agreement. Usmca. And while not perfect, i know how critical usmca is for the state of indiana and for our entire country. For farm country, for manufacturers, and for businesses of all sizes. In my state, trade certainty with canada and mexico is vital. Over 233,000 jobs are directly attributable to our trade with canada and mexico. Our exports total 19 billion worth of goods and services with transportation equipment and chemicals and machinery among the largest export categories. Our auto exports to canada and mexico have significantly increased in recent years. Since 2010, they have more than doubled. But whats really important is that over 70 of transportation equipment exports come directly from small and mediumsize enterprises. By facilitating an environment that enhances Market Access to our largest trading partners, we support these local businesses that truly invest in workers through higher wages and other benefits. And we thereby strengthen our local communities. Usmca gives farmers much needed tools through eliminating unnecessary market barriers, expanding Market Access, and improving processes around biotech approvals. Farmers benefit from a reliable trading relationship with our neighbors, especially as the future remains uncertain with many countries. For these reasons, and for many others, i will be supporting usmca. Thank you, sir. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The state of washington is one of the most tradedependent economies in our country and we certainly believe in opening newbelieve in opening. We can focus on wheat, dairy, digital aspects or the need to have better enforcement on aerospace, i want to spend my time talking about the 240 million we are going to spend on ensuring that mexico has Capacity Building protections. That is, for rights to organize and bargain collectively. I want to thank my colleague senator brown and wyden for helping to implement these provisions on enforcement. But also, recognizing that the twin sister of enforcement is Capacity Building. Why do i believe that we need to focus on Capacity Building . When we pass the customs bill for trade Promotion Authority, we created a 30 million enforcement trust fund. That trust fund has been used to bolster agriculture, our economy, by also being used to stop illegal logging in south america. To send chinese a warning about tariffs and quotas on wheat and get that changed. And to fight european subsidies for commercial aircraft. So that capacity that we put into the customs bill has helped us made trade work. The same thing is clear here. If we want to make trade work in countries that dont really understand how to make it work successfully, we can demand all we want. But the United States of america has to be a willing partner in building capacity. So why do i think this is so important . Well, its a roadmap for where we need to go. This is the first time that i know of where business and labor, Companies Like cocacola and the aflcio, are in agreement about how to make the rules of the road. They are saying, specifically, we believe in the United States of america helping these countries build the judicial system, the labor enforcement system, the protection against child labor violations, and all the things that are so important to make a good trading partner. This is a far cry from building a wall. So in a lot of ways, this bill is a lot more trumpka than it is trump. And this is the point that i want to make this morning. If our country wants to recognize the growing middle class around the world, the huge Economic Opportunity that the Tipping Point has occurred, there are more middle class people than poor people now in the global economy. Its trillions of dollars of Economic Opportunity. So lets build relationships. Lets build enforcement. Lets build capacity. And lets get on with what my state already knows, that trade is a great Economic Opportunity for our future economy. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator stabenow. Thank you, mr. Chairman and Ranking Member. As i often say in michigan, we make things and grow things. Because we make things and grow things, trade is a critical part of our economy. And we are clearly a border state. Trade is particularly critical with mexico and canada, our two largest trading partners. For a trade agreement to be effective for American Families, we need to make sure were exporting our products and not our jobs. And thats the test for me. Unfortunately, since nafta went into effect for more than two decades, workers and families in michigan have seen manufacturing jobs and their livelihoods outsourced to mexico. Nafta created a race to the bottom. Major incentives for companies to ship their manufacturing jobs and facilities to mexico so they could pay the lowest wage and offer the lowest benefits possible. When the Trump Administration announced they would renegotiate nafta, i agreed that a review and a modernization was long overdue. However, when the administration announced that they had reached a deal in 2018, they touted a new agreement that was essentially the old nafta for working men and women. There were still no meaningful enforcement to guarantee a level Playing Field. And it was clear to me that michigan workers had been betrayed. So i did not support that agreement. Instead, i joined with democratic colleagues led by senator brown, senator wyden, who have done excellent work, to dramatically improve the agreement and add more tools on leveling the Playing Field for workers and protecting american jobs. Because of these substantial improvements, i now intend to support this agreement. But its not enough to have words on a piece of paper. These new enforcement tools must be used. Its up to the administration and to congress to vigorously monitor and enforce this agreement. We need a fair trading system that actually addresses labor, environmental, and other violations swiftly when they occur. For example, we were also able to end canadas class 7 milk pricing scheme. An issue ive worked on for a long time and i want to thank ambassador lighthizer for his efforts in making this a priority. This pricing scheme allows canada to manipulate the price of their milk, which in turn lowers the demand for u. S. Milk exports. Enforcement of this new language is critical for American Dairy producers. Again, making sure canada abides by their obligations on dairy and ensuring mexico follows through on their constitutional reforms will only be successful if the new enforcement tools democrats secured are actually used. I also want to take a moment to say what is not in this agreement. And the work that still needs to be done for American Workers and families. We should be passing legislation like my bring jobs home act to close loopholes that reward companies when they offshore american jobs. Its also critical, mr. Chairman, that we make updates to trade adjustment assistance. To support americans who lose their jobs because of trade impacts. Soon, i will be introducing a trade adjustment assistance reauthorization bill to modernize, reform, and strengthen taa for workers who continue to be harmed by unfair trade practices. Usually, trade adjustment assistance moves as part of a trade agreement, as we know. Because this is not happening with usmca, i urge that we support displaced workers, that they be a priority for future action in this committee. Again, on behalf of the people of michigan, i am laserfocused on making sure were exporting products, not jobs, and this bipartisan agreement creates the tools to do that if we use them. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator whitehouse. Thank you, chairman. I will be a no vote on environmental concerns. I recognize that a lot of progress has been made in this agreement on trade and labor issues and i want to thank, on our side particularly, Ranking Member wyden and senator brown for the impressive work that they have done to make those improvements. Theres actually even been a lot of progress made on Environmental Issues, and i want to thank senators carper and carden for their hard work there. But the progress thats been made on Environmental Issues starts started from an embarrassingly, really disgracefully low bar, nonexistent bar. So this agreement does not reflect a sense of urgency about what i feel is an appropriately sense of dread about the climate calamities that are unfolding. The wildfires now burning in australia. The trillions of gallons shedding off the Greenland Ice cap. The earth is sending us profound signals that we have knocked things out of whack on our only home. My state of rhode island is facing a new map because Sea Level Rise will force that change. The usmca does not even mention climate change. That name, that word, that phrase does not even appear. The question for me is, does this agreement work toward protecting us from warming above 1. 5 degrees centigrade . Or does it not . And in my view, it does not. We have never, never had co2 levels on this planet at the levels we see now in the entire history of our human species. It breaks my heart to see congress sleepwalking into catastrophe on carbon emissions, and it angers my heart to see the fossil fuel industry still so deliberately incapacitating us from taking necessary action. So for these reasons, sadly, i will vote no. Senator whitehouse. Now senator scott. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you to you and your staff for the hard work on this deal. It is not necessarily a perfect deal and not necessarily the deal i would like us to be discussing today but it certainly is a step in the right direction. South carolina is a great case study in the effects of a postnafta world. Our textile community was decimated, in many ways, from our perspective, because of nafta. The good news is that we had an opportunity to recreate our economy. We recreated our economy around hightech manufacturing. And today, in South Carolina, Companies Like bmw, bosch, michelin and volvo have made South Carolina their home. Investment is a major lifeblood of the South Carolina economy. Bmw recently celebrated 25 years of presence in South Carolina. Thats 25 years, 11 billion invested, 11,000 workers. 4 of our state employees are part of the automotive industry. So, as this Committee Considers this agreement, this administration and future administrations must remember the innovation is what drives america to greatness. Innovation like the 4 of South Carolinaeans. Dairy farmers like lynn easter now have the Gold Standard to sell in canada in a fair and competitive market. As this agreement moves forward towards implementation, i plan to keep a very focused eye on how the rules and regulations surrounding this new automotive regime are carried out. Our Regulatory Environment should never be one that stifles innovation. Thank you. Senator cassidy . Yeah, thank you, mr. Chairman. First, let me complement the president and ambassador lighthizer. That said i take issue strongly with the process that has taken before us as a body, we continue to drift away from regular order. Weve not held a markup or allowed amendments, giving members of this committee little input. One specific example, the investor state dispute Settlement System when it comes to the Energy Sector no longer allowed except for the super majors that contract directly with the Mexican Government. But if you are the Oil Field Service provider or the pipeline producer, youre not. Now, i can tell you, exxonmobil can take care of themselves. But if youre the Oil Field Service provider, maybe you cant. To senator whitehouses point, my gosh, wouldnt it be great if we were taking that natural gas currently be flared into the atmosphere out of west texas into mexico where the Mexican Government could then replace coal or fuel oil being burned with lower Greenhouse Gas emiting natural gas . Not only would we not flare in the permean but we would be substituting that for a higher Greenhouse Gas producing fuel in mexico. But we dont have the investorstate dispute Settlement System for the person building that pipeline. If its later nationalized theres no the house had the ability to say were not going to do this unless we get our demands met. Weve not had that ability so weve not had that ability to say wait a minute, they cant take care of themselves and that could have benefits not just for our economy, not just for the certainty for the mexican economy for investment, but also for issues such as climate change. I am very disturb bid that and i think we continue to see power from this committee to others to the detriment of our society. I yield back. Now, for the people that are at the table for the next part of our review, we have meyor patel of the republican staff and gretta paisch of the democratic staff. We have john marie and maria pagan from the u. S. Trade representative here to answer questions. Thank you all for participating. Well ask mr. Patel to give a brief overview of the bill before we go to questions. When we go to questions i will call on you the way you ask recognition. Mr. Patel . Thank you, chairman grassley, Ranking Member weiden, members of the committee. Ill start with a general overview and proceed to discuss specific titles of the bill. The usmca implementing bill ensures that the various commitments and rights of the United States under the usmca are effectively implemented and theres a smooth transition from nafta to usmca. To that end, the implementing bill contains provisions to transfer and amend former nafta provision act and usmca implementation act and repeal what remains of the nafta implementation act. Several provisions specify dates to facilitate the transition. To respect to specific titles in the bill, there are nine, which i will briefly summarize. Title i, approval of and general provisions relating to the usmca. This title includes provisions providing for congressapproval of usmca and related protocols and the statement of administrative action. And the president s authority and agencies Regulatory Authority to implement usmca. Title ii, customs provisions. This title includes provisions providing for rules to determine whether good qualifies for usmcas benefits including special rules that apply to automotive goods, establishment of an Interagency Committee to review usmcas implementation and operations with respect to automotive goods, record completing requirements and authority for the secretary of treasury to conduct verification actions on usmca preferental duty claims. Title iii, usmca sector and services, this title includes provisions establishing a process with u. S. International trade commission to investigate whether mexican trucking carriers are causing material harm to the u. S. Long haul trucking industry. Title iv, antidumping and counterveiling duties, providing for u. S. Customs and Border Protection to take into consideration that canada and mexico are usmca parties for compliance assessment, activities for antidumping and counterveiling duties. It includes conforming amendments under chapter 19 of nafta, will continue under chapter 10 of usmca. Title v, transfer provisions and other amendments. This title includes provisions that transfer and amend provisions from the nafta implementation act. Provisions dealing with duty drawback under the trade act of 1974. Title vi transition to an extension of usmca. This title has three subtitles. Subtitle a repeals the nafta implementation act and provides for the continued suspension of the u. S. Canada Free Trade Agreement, subtitle b imposes on the president to consult with joint review mechanism, including whether to continue the term of usmca. Subtitle c, will cease to have force to any country thats no longer a usmca country or if the usmca ceases to be enforce with the United States. Title iiv labor monitoring and enforcement. Five subtitles relating to labor rights under usmca. Subtitle a establishes an Interagency Labor Committee for monitoring enforcement, coordinate implementation and compliance with labor obligations, make and to the public with regard to the implementation failure under the agreement. Subtitle b provides that the secretary of labor will hire or assign five labor attaches to assist the labor committee. Attaches will be based at the u. S. Embassy in mexico. Subtitle c establishes a labor export board that will issue assessments of mexicos efforts and compliance with its labor obligations under usmca. Subtitle d establishes a force Labor Enforcement Task force to monitor u. S. Enforcement on the prohibition of importation of goods manufacturing by convict or forced labor. Subtitle e concerns the Rapid Response mechanism set forth in annex 31a of the usmca, in particular, ustr authority, suspend liquidation of goods and apply final remedies only if a panel of independent labor experts finds a denial of rights. Title viii, Environment Monitoring and enforcement. This title has three subtitles relating to environmental obligations under usmca. Subtitle a establishes an Interagency Environment Committee for monitoring enforcement. The Committee Shall carry out an assessment of whether usmca environmental laws are sufficient to meet usmcas obligations. Subtitle b provides that the epa administrator shall carry out treatment works to address pollution resulting from the International Transboundary water flows from mexico. Subtitle c provides for capital reauthorization and title ix, usmcas supplementation act 2019. This title appropriates 843 million to implement, monitor and enforce usmcas labor obligations and recapitalized the north american bank. That concludes my presentation of the bill. Thank you. Senator . Chairman, i have a question and i would like to follow that up with an amendment i understand youll rule out of order. What was the date in which the complet final agreement was transmitted to congress . May 30th of last year, along with a draft saa. Okay. So my colleagues, i just listened to, i think, every single democrat on this panel talk about how significant, meaningful, important the changes in the agreement were that occurred after may 30th. I heard many of my democratic colleagues say that they opposed the may 30th agreement, but i think i heard most of my democratic colleagues say that they now support the agreement because of all the major changes that have occurred. We all know thats what happened here. We had an agreement on may 30ththat was not acceptable to most democrats. Not acceptable to the speaker of the house. And so negotiations continued with lightheizer, Speaker Pelosi and other figures, i dont know who they were. And major changes were negotiated. Thats all fine. The problem is those changes werent finalized until december 10th. Those came to us on december 11th. And tpa is very clear. It says that any agreement shall enter into force if and only if the president , at least 30 days before submitting to congress the materials under subparagraph b, implementing bill, submits to congress a copy of the final legal text of the agreement. We all know that that final legal text wasnt here until december 11th. The house voted anyway a week later and here we are today, totally jammed by the house and this process, not even able to offer an amendment. Senator cassidy suggested an idea for an amendment that certainly ought to have merited some consideration by this committee. And i have a suggestion, and to illustrate this point, im going to offer this amendment, mr. Chairman. Because as i indicated earlier, usmca expires in 16 years unless all three parties simultaneously and mutually agree to extend it for six years. Okay. Well, the implementing bill is silent on any process by which the u. S. Would come to the decision as to whether or not to extend it for another six years. All it does is states that the head of state, thats the president , will transmit the decision. But it doesnt say how we get to that decision. So who is going to decide . Does the president decide. Does congress have any say in that at all or are we just passive witnesses, bystanders while others decide about our constitutional responsibility . Do you think theres a chance it could be disputed . I do. So i have an amendment. Its toomey amendment number one. And it says the amendment would insert at 621, section 621 language requiring both houses of congress to affirmativeely vote to have usmca expire pursuant to the underlying agreement sunset clause in the absent of said congressional votes, usmca ought to be extended for another six years. All this does is says that Congress Gets to decide, at least play a role in making the decision about whether or not this agreement is extended or not. It does not require renegotiating the agreement. Nobody has to fly to mexico to determine whether its okay with the mexicans. This is our decision, the United States of america. And the question is whether or not congress would have a role. This is the kind of thing that in a proper mock markup, i think, we would have an interesting discussion. Theres nothing partisan about this idea, by the way. Nothing at all. I could imagine this could come out in many ways. Its exactly the kind of thing that ought to be debated and adjudicated in this committee in my view. I would like to have a vote on this, mr. Chairman. First of all, the bill is privileged under the trade Promotion Authority and thus amendments are prohibited. The amendment is out of order and toomey is in his right to appeal the ruling of the chair. I would ask that we would vote no on that motion and the clerk will call the role. Mr. Chairman, as i thought my staff had indicated im prepared not to appeal the ruling of the chair on this. I think i know the outcome. But i want to make a point. The fact that this 30day window was not adhered to, its not compliant with ptpa. Thats not going to stop it from passing. Theres 60 votes to do this under regular order but this amendment, i think, is a completely reasonable, germane issue that ought to be considered by the committee. For a minute i would like to speak to the point that mr. Toomey made in regard to the substance of his amendment. I want to note that the administration, at my request, revised the bill to include section 611 to ensure that congress and the Administration Work together in any decision regarding extending usmcas terms. This is another example of how the administration consulted with congress in developing the bill. Senator menendez . Thank you, mr. Chairman. I have one or two questions. Yesterday propublica published trade lobbyists for trade exclusions while Small Businesses are struggling to navigate the process and are being hit hard by the impact of tariffs. The article notes how apple, for example, took its case directly to the president and got a significant number of exclusions approved. Meanwhile Small Businesses like my constituents in new jersey have had to wait months for an answer and have no way of knowing how ustr will judge their applications. I ask unanimous consent of the article be entered into the record. Without objection, it will be entered. No one can say this is a fair, transparent way to conduct trade policy. And we already have evidence from monitoring and enforcement. Could an Inspector General review ustrs compliance with these requirements to ensure labor cases are being appropriately examined and acted upon . Yes. Section 202 of the bill must follow to consider request by ought Automotive Companies for additional time to comply with usmcas new and complex rules of original. Could an Inspector General review the procedure to ensure this is done fairly and transparently . Yes. Finally, title ix appropriates 90 million to ustr to monitor and enforce labor and environmental obligations. Could an Inspector General audit ustrs funds to ensure. Yes, it could. Voting on usmca doesnt mean our work is finished. A strong i am. Im simply suggesting that voting on usmca doesnt mean work is finished. Strong oversight will be critical to ensure that this agreement succeeds and Inspector General for ustr would be a valuable tool this committee could use to make sure our trade policy actually benefits american working families. The chairman has been a strong advocate of Inspector Generals and their work in other areas, and i look forward to working with you and the Ranking Member to follow up on this. We will do that, senator menendez. Mr. Chairman, if i, senator wyden. Im going to be very, very brief. Not only do i agree with senator menendez, but on this committee, senator cornyn and senator casey, i think, have been vigorous in terms of enforcement, trade enforcement. Theyll have heavy lifting to do in the days ahead and senator menendez is very much on point. Mr. Chairman . Okay. Okay. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Thank you, rob. I would like to ask a few questions to you, miss peisch, if i could. How the proposal is intended to work and why its significant. Senator wyden and i pushed for brown wyden to strengthen labor enforcement to make the process more accessible to workers. The question is, is it true under brown wyden no worker himself or herself can file a complaint to kickstart the enforcement process . Yes, senator. Thank you. In all our other ftas the only other labor enforcement available was at the government level. A government can bring a case against another government for systemic labor violations but thats been it in the past. Brown wyden changes that to allow us to target private sector facilities. Can you tell us how long the enforcement process in brown wyden will take once that worker files a complaint through the hotline and how does that compare to the length of time of enforcement under other Free Trade Agreements . Enforcement under the brown wyden procedures would take a matter of months, approximately around 150 days. This is significantly shorter than statetostate dispute settlement which in the case of the United States case against guatemala, it took over eight years. Thank you. One of the most groundbreaking parts of brown wyden is that it will allow us to take Enforcement Actions when the violations occur on the factory floor. So if a worker reports violation of his rights to organize, in, say, a call center, and we think it has merit, the u. S. Can send labor inspectors to that facility. Correct . Correct. And if those labor inspectors find violations on the site when they inspect the facility, we can take action against that specific facility, correct . Correct. What kinds of actions can we take against that facility, if you would explain that . The United States could impose tariffs or apply penalties for firsttime offenders, including with respect to imports where the United States has suspended liquidation during the course of that investigation. So in proportional terms, proportional to the offense, but then in the second and third beyond that, correct . Thats correct. So if we find there were labor violations at a car factory, we can apply that penalty to any cars that might come into the u. S. From that factory throughout the investigation, not just going forward. Correct . Correct. And what happens to repeat offenders . Does violation have to happen at the same factory for it to be considered a repeat offense or is it considered a repeat offense if a violation occurs at a second or third factory owned by the same company . Its the latter. If its a factory owned by the same company, it is not a facilityspecific repeat offense. Its by the owner. If there are three violations, what happens by the third . For three violations, the United States would have the ability to block goods, again, from the company not the specific facility for that third violation. Is this after walking through this, is this the strongest labor enforcement ever included in a trade agreement, to your knowledge . Yes, it is. Do you think brown wyden will cause corporations to think twice about offshoring productions from ohio or michigan or kansas or idaho or iowa or oregon to mexico so they can maximize their profits . Yes, i do. Okay. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, chairman. I would like to ask about digital trade and mr. Melle, i talked to you earlier, would love to hear your response to this but also any others. One, can you talk to us a little bit about how the divisional trade provisions are different and specifically, would you say that they go beyond the digital trade commitments in tpp, for example, and therefore would be the highest quality digital trade chapters in any u. S. Trade agreement . Certainly. Again the nafta is an old agreement and so we jabe updated it. Digital is one area where trade is expanded considerably and we need additional disciplines to reflect that change. We captured those in the usmca agreement. Let me turn to my cheat sheet here. John, while youre doing that, let me just make the point that this is not just an idle threat. Canada, for years, has been talking about the possibility of putting in place a Digital Services tax, as an example. We see whats happening in europe. So, for every member of this panel, all of whom have, as i do, constituents that are involved in internet services, internet trade, this is a big deal because it establishes not just for a huge market like canada or mexico, our number one trading partners combined, but also for future trade agreements a new precedent. My question is, is this precedent unprecedented . In other words is the highestquality digital trade chapter we have . Absolutely. As a general matter, we took what we had begun to negotiate in the tpp and our other agreements and we plussed that up, whenever that was possible, and thats certainly the case in the usmca as compared to the prior agreements that we negotiated. So the disciplines are certainly go beyond what we negotiated in the tpp and any other trade agreement for that matter. Okay. With regard to auto rules, you talked about this earlier and the free rider issue. One of my concerns about the rule of origin is that other countries take advantage of the trade agreement we have, in this case, primarily with mexico but also canada, and they bring oughtauto parts in from other countries, china being the country that is probably the most used this most frequently. And in the car, in essence, is a north american car, its a north american car in terms of its benefits that it gets from the reduction, and really, the zeroing out of the tariffs, but in essence, other countries are free riding on our agreement with canada and mexico, and thats why i did support raising the percentage of the car that has to be made in north america, and i think that makes sense from a trade point of view, if you want to expand trade, because then these other countries have to realize that they want to take advantage of these bigger openings in our market, they should do a trade agreement with us and then we get reciprocal assets as well because theyre not just free riding on the north american Free Trade Agreement. Can you talk about that or someone else on the panel here and explain what that means in terms of auto production in the United States . Will that increase the amount of auto production in the United States because we have higher entitled rules of origin . Youre exactly youre exactly, right senator. The purpose of any trade agreement concessions to one another, to put the agreement into place. In the case of the auto sector, we have a very vibrant, large, and one great north american industry so in my mind there is no better candidate rules of origin that continue to build on that integration and encourage additional investment, innovation, production and supply chains in north america, so, the original nafta had a regional value requirement of 62 and a half percent, there were some loopholes that allowed some components to be made off shore and count towards that or not be counted against that number. The new total will be 75 . The other point i would make is, there is a transition period to get to that. We have additional requirements. You mentioned the steel, also an aluminum requirement, also wage requirement, other requirements on making core parts for an automotive vehicle, all of those intended to be phased in over a period of time. Weve been working with all of the producers and with the suppliers in the Auto Industry throughout this process to make sure we are getting the balance right in terms of recurring investment north america, especially in the United States, not penalizing competitors and keeping and expanding the Auto Industry in the United States. We expect billions and billions of additional investments to be made, largely in the United States with the result of these provisions, we pertained particular attention to new technologies, batteries, electric vehicles, for example, to make sure we set ground rules that encourage that investment and innovation in the United States. Thank you very much. Again, i commend you and your colleagues for focusing on this issue of manufacturing and automobiles and the opportunity to have, in a, sense a renaissance of manufacturing here in this country. Thank, you mister chairman. Before we call on senator carter, let me say how i think this meeting will end. We want all questions, because senator toomey has asked for the courtesy of making the last statement or whatever he wants to do before we vote, so, i will call on senator cardin and then if anyone else has questions, let me know, so we can honor senator to me. Go ahead, senator carter. Thank, you mister chair. I want to have my colleagues welcome ben sasse, it is great to have you with, us ben, thank you for joining us. Mister, chairman i want to ask you to end this can see that my written statement be written into the record, i spoke earlier today but i did not ask that my written statement he added into the record. I will let you do that at this time. I would like to reiterate, when, i spoke earlier i commended ben cardin and other people and indeed all of our staff are working so hard to make sure the not only adequate language in the usmca with respect to the protection but we actually provide the money to make those protections real, one quick question, if i could, of our panel, can and if you recall anything that ever said with respect to birthdays . And the words of wisdom with regards to birthdays . Do you recall that . On the 59th birthday of john thune, which is, today i just remember the words which said, how old would you be if you did not know how old you were work like you dont need the, money dance like nobody is looking, and love like you have never been hurt. Live each day like it is your last, and some day you will be right, and with that, two german, john, thune happy birthday. If i, may senators also is helping with an important division in this agreement, unanimous vision that helps Small Business, and i congratulate him for his leadership. Okay, senator lankford. Just two quick questions on this one. By the way, senator conversant will be entered in the record. I just want to ask, for any additional clarification on the intellectual property, there has been much spoken about the protection of ip and what that means and the additional layers on that, and i want to follow up a question after that. Well, there is a number of improvements we have made in this agreement, again, nafta is a very old agreement and in ip terms, perhaps ancient applies to that so do the upgrades that we have included here, minimum tour protection for copyright, words for all the ship is plus 75 years and 75 years in publication, we have added new deterrent, civil and criminal penalty for camcorder which has been a particular problem in this area in recent years. There is an authority never border enforcement officials to stop goods that are suspected of being pirated or counterfeited at points of entry. We cannot have that Authority Without this agreement, we have the highest standards. Thats for all three nations by the. Right, correct all of these wouldbe across the board on all three countries, we have the highest standards for procedural safeguards regarding geographical indications and again, that is an important issue with respect to some of the trading partners outside of north america. We have the strongest standards of any u. S. Trade agreement for the protection of trade secrets against misappropriation, and from a cause of action, litigation protections and so forth i am going out in great length, just a couple of more very quickly, there are both criminal and civil remedies for cable satellite signal theft, National Tribute to prevent discrimination against u. S. Protectors and there are strong protection against our convention of technological prevention, to protect digital content, so, those are the highlights of this new chapter that go beyond the original agreement. And thank, you one additional, followup things that i mentioned the protocol, amendment are there any additional american obligations for those seven existing, treaties those treaties are mentioned, what are the additional american obligations that are out in this agreement . Right, there are no additional u. S. Obligations. Thank you. A well, senator corner, yes. Mister chairman, thank, you i will be brief. I alluded to this in my Opening Statement and i just want to perhaps provide a little additional clarification. Mister mentally, the concern has to do with the concern with respect to distilled spirits, in this case, apparently this would also apply to other distilled spirits, but since this is a distilled spirit that comes from 22 different plant species that grow naturally on both sides of the u. S. And mexico border, there is concern about u. S. Recognition of sotol as a distinctive product of mexico, and whether it would contravene 27usc under section 205e which the secretary of the treasury is charged with developing regulations on packaging, marketing, branding and labeling as will prohibit deception of consumers with respect to distilled spirits products. Are you familiar with that issue . I believe thats subject of a letter by the ustr. Again, i appreciate the chairman working with us on the report language to make sure that the congressional intent is upheld and that deception is avoided, but would you care to shed some light or thoughts on that . Certainly, senator. Yes, there was a side letter that was signed with mexico as part of the negotiation package, and we did agree to undertake to initiate a review of three distilled spirits that are made in mexico. But we did nothing to change the u. S. Process for conducting that review. We have no obligation to any particular outcome from any of those reviews and certainly will follow u. S. Law practice, and that includes certainly an opportunity for Public Comment and participation. Thank you. Mr. Chairman for those members of the committee who have never consumed sotol, i would recommend it to them. Okay. Is it okay now to go to senator toomey . Senator toomey . Thank you very much, chairman and colleagues on the committee. Ill be very brief. I would like to engage in a brief colloquy to determine if the chairman and the Ranking Member agree that the absence of a mock markup should not be considered a precedent for how we in this committee will deal with future trade agreements under tpa. Well, tpa prohibits amendments and does not require a mock markup. Mock markups are optional. They can be an important tool for congress to share its views with the executive branch. To fulfill its purposes, a mock markup has to happen before the introduction of a bill. Were obviously well past that now. Congress has shared its views on usmc for over a year. Critically this administration has acted in response by implementing bipartisan feedback into the bill. In this very unique situation, there was no time for a mock markup. These unique circumstances should not be considered precedent for future fta considerations, but we have weighed in formally through hearings and informally through meetings with the administration for over a year. Now we should proceed to deliver on usmca which is indisputably valuable to the American People. Now, i would like to have the roll call. Senator toomey, i largely agree with the chairman on this. I would only add that mock markups are a valuable part of the process and i am committed to more mock markups in the future. Now i would like to have the roll call. Will the clerk call the roll . Mr. Graybol . Mr. Roberts, aye. Mr. Enzy . Mr. Cornyn . Mr. Thune. Aye mr. Burr . Okay. I guess burr doesnt have a proxy. Aye by proxy. Mr. Portman . Aye. No. Mr. Scott . Aye. Mr. Cassidy . No. Mr. Langford. Aye. Mr. Danes . Aye. Mr. Young . Aye. Mr. Sasse . Aye. Miss stabenow . Aye. Mr. Menendez, aye. Mr. Carper, aye. Mr. Cordon . Aye by proxy. Mr. Brown, aye. Mr. Bennett . Aye. Mr. Casey, aye. Mr. Warner, aye. Mr. White house . No. Miss hassin . Aye. Miss cortez . Aye mr. Chairman . Aye. Chairman votes aye. Would you announce the vote . 25 ayes, three nays. 25 ayes, three nays. The bill is reported. I would like to say thank you to some people. First of all, this is a big bipartisan vote, a reminder that when Congress Works together in a bipartisan way the American People greatly benefit. I want to thank my colleagues again for working with the Trump Administration and me and senator wyden. I also want to thank members of my finance committee trade staff for their very, very hard work. Ranking member wyden and his staff have worked with me through this whole process and im grateful for that cooperation as well. I look forward to a vote on the senate floor, hopefully soon, for final passage. Meeting adjourned