White House starts the march to a vote on the new NAFTA

U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer sent a letter to congressional leaders on Thursday to trigger the process of approving the new NAFTA. The draft of a so-called statement of administrative action allows the Trump administration to submit the trade deal to Congress within 30 days, reported CNBC, with a vote to follow within 90 days on the implementing legislation.

Formally named the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or the USMCA for short, the successor to NAFTA would preserve duty-free entry for most U.S. food and ag products into Canada and Mexico, expand the U.S. share of the dairy market in Canada, and require equitable grading of U.S. wheat offered for import into Canada.

Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday during a trip to Canada, “I want to assure you that we’re making energetic efforts to move approval through the Congress of the United States this summer.”

“The Trump administration’s decision to send Congress a draft statement of administrative action before we have finished working with U.S. trade representative Lighthizer to ensure the USMCA benefits American workers and farmers is not a positive step,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a statement.

Meanwhile, President Trump announced he will put tariffs as high as 25 percent on all imports from Mexico “unless and until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory.” Duties of 5 percent will be imposed on June 10, rising to 10 percent on July 1 and an additional  5 percentage points each on Aug. 1, Sept. 1 and Oct. 1. “If Mexico fails to act, tariffs will remain at the high level, and companies located in Mexico may start moving back to the United States to make their products and goods,” Trump said in a statement.

Some White House aides tried to dissuade the president, warning that tariffs could imperil approval of the USMCA and disrupt financial markets.

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