Key congressional Republicans are on board should the Trump administration decide today to let its trade deal with Canada and Mexico lapse while talks continue.
President Donald Trump has been vocally critical of the agreement he struck in his first term, which is due for an extension on Wednesday. Trade representatives, slated to huddle virtually, are expected to announce after that they will keep negotiating changes rather than reup the agreement as-is for another 16 years.
“These discussions are warranted, and the goal needs to be a stronger USMCA; I think there’s considerable support for that as well,” Rep. Adrian Smith, the Nebraska Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee’s trade panel, told Semafor on Tuesday. “I want to keep an open mind in terms of what all can be achieved.”
Smith added that “there’s a path” where Congress “wouldn’t even have to vote on it.”