Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross this week told House Ways & Means Democrats that the Trump administration in mid-March will formally notify Congress of its intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, ranking member Richard Neal (D-MA) and other panel Democrats told Inside U.S. Trade.
[Jenny Leonard| March 2, 2017 |Inside US Trade]
“He made it clear, some time around March 15th we’ll be formally notified, that will commence the 90-day review period,” Neal said of the Feb. 28 meeting with Ross. “I think it was pretty clear they were going to be very aggressive in the renegotiation of NAFTA.”
Reps. Sandy Levin (D-MI), Bill Pascrell (D-NJ), Ron Kind (D-WI) and Neal all described the meeting as “good” and “very productive,” but said they do not believe the sit-down with Ross fulfills a consultation requirement under the 2015 Trade Promotion Authority Law before the administration can move forward with the official talks.
They said Ross did not offer details on negotiating objectives for the NAFTA talks, which the administration is required to provide to Congress when formally notifying lawmakers of its intent to initiate trade negotiations.
