USMCA Trade Deal: Trump Says Pelosi Delaying Deal For Impeachment Votes

President Donald Trump has expressed concern over the delay in passing the re-negotiated U.S Mexico Canada trade pact known as USMCA and blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for it.

The President accused Pelosi of delaying a vote on the deal as a way to secure votes for her impeachment inquiry against him over the Ukraine phone call seeking probe against political rivals.

The USMCA trade deal seeks to replace the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It was signed by the leaders of the three countries in November 2018.

The new deal, Trump believes will be an achievement and render oriental trading like bonanza as far USA jobs are concerned.

Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump complained that Pelosi is not advancing his signature trade deal and said she was playing politics with the accord to garner votes for his impeachment.

“Nancy Pelosi can’t get it off her desk. I think the woman is grossly incompetent. All she has to do is put it up for a vote.” Trump said.

According to Trump, Pelosi only wants to “focus on impeachment, which is just a little pipe dream she’s got.”

“And I’ve been told she’s using USMCA because she doesn’t have the impeachment votes. So she’s using USMCA to get the impeachment votes,” Trump added.

According to the Bloomberg report, there is still no clarity whether the U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement will stand the scrutiny of the House as mixed signals are coming from the Democratic Party.

While Richard Neal, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee said it could be finished by Christmas, fellow Democrat, Rosa DeLauro, said there is no progress in negotiations.

Pelosi denies charge

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Pelosi in an email to Bloomberg news said: “As the president well knows, the speaker has been working diligently with his trade representative to advance Democrats further down a path to yes on the USMCA.”

Hammill said despite the “president’s desperate attacks” the trade deal remains separate from the ongoing Trump impeachment inquiry.

The spokesman added that “Pelosi isn’t whipping votes on impeachment” and noted the Democratic leadership has not decided yet to proceed with action to remove the president from office.

Automakers worried

Meanwhile, many carmakers are nervous about the delay in USMCA and are worried about the prospect of losing the borderless North America window that gave them immense cost advantage so far, per Fox news.

The American automakers had been lobbying for the new treaty to preserve NAFTA’s lack of borders. But Trump has threatened to pull the United States out of NAFTA if Congress does not ratify USMCA.

Such a situation may force U.S automakers to pay tariffs under the WTO rules. Paying duty would take away their cushion of cost-benefit from cross-border supply chains and automakers will have to search for cheaper alternatives.

“A lot of our production is very, very capital intensive and when you’re deploying that much capital you want to have a clear sense of what the rules are,” noted Everett Eissenstat, GM’s vice president for global public policy.

In the meantime, some reports said Pelosi had a meeting with 40 Democratic freshmen representatives and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Richard Trumka on Tuesday.

Trumka reportedly apprised her the union’s concerns about the USMCA, including Mexico’s plan to overhaul its labor laws.