House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday announced agreement on a modified North American trade pact, handing President Donald Trump a major Capitol Hill win on the same day that Democrats announced their impeachment charges against him.
The California Democrat said the revamped US-Mexico-Canada Agreement is a significant improvement over the original North American Free Trade Agreement, crediting Democratic negotiators for winning stronger provisions on enforcing the agreement.
"There is no question of course that this trade agreement is much better than NAFTA," Pelosi said in announcing the agreement. She said the pact is "infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration."
She has negotiated with the administration extensively to win stronger enforcement provisions. Her efforts have appeared to build support among Democrats There are those who I read about in one place or another that say, 'why would you give President Trump a victory?'"
Pelosi said Monday night at a Wall Street Journal event for corporate executives. "Well, why wouldn't we? This is the right thing to do for our trade situation, for our workers."
"You don't have to have unanimity, you just have to have consensus. Pelosi said. "Once we go down that path we'll be OK."
"She worked to try and make sure people are making it better, make sure there aren't people spun up," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., calling the new accord a better end result."