By Chris Prentice and David Lawder
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. labor officials on Tuesday pressed lawmakers to strengthen enforcement of the provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) intended to protect workers, the latest sign the trade deal could face hurdles to passage in the Democrat-led House of Representatives.
Renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was one of President Donald Trump's campaign promises and part of his broader push for better terms of trade for the United States. He has said bad deals cost millions of U.S. jobs.
Republican House members who met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon said they would work hard to pass the new agreement, calling it a better deal for U.S. workers than the 25-year-old NAFTA.
"Our farmers and our manufacturers and tech companies tell us that it's crucial that we come together and pass this new agreement and get it to the president's desk this summer," said Representative Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee.
The Trump administration is lobbying to persuade Congress to ratify USMCA this year.
But representatives from some of the largest and most influential U.S. unions told members of the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee the reworked trade pact does not go far enough to ensure improvement of wages and working conditions, especially for Mexican workers.
"All the NAFTA renegotiation efforts in the world will not create U.S. jobs, raise U.S. wages or reduce the U.S. trade deficit if the new rules do not include clear, strong and effective labor rules that require Mexico to abandon its low wage policy," said Celeste Drake of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
In late 2018, the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada signed the deal to replace NAFTA, but it has yet to be reviewed and ratified by Congress. Trade among the three countries totals more than $1 trillion.
Democrats, who took control of the House of Representatives in January, have traditionally been skeptical of free trade agreements and sympathetic to labor groups. Their support is essential to USMCA's passage.
USMCA requires its three signatories to maintain labor laws in line with international standards, and to enforce them. But critics have called the agreement's enforcement mechanism insufficient, saying it will still allow weak unions and resulting low wages in Mexico, while failing to stanch the flight of U.S. factories to lower-cost Mexico.