House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal will lead the House Democrats’ Trade Working Group, a task force charged with negotiating with the Trump administration to overhaul elements of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
The Democratic members were appointed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and are divided into four subgroups: drug pricing, labor, environment and enforcement.
Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois will lead the drug pricing team; California Reps. Jimmy Gomez and Mike Thompson will head the labor group; Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon and John Larson of Connecticut will tackle environmental issues; and Reps. Terri Sewell of Alabama and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut will work on enforcement.
Enforcement is the thorniest of issues, as Pelosi has made clear the Trump administration needs to reopen trade negotiations with Canada and Mexico to exact concessions. Pelosi controls the fate of the agreement, which the White House calls its top legislative priority; the speaker has not committed to a floor vote.
The working group is expected to negotiate with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
[To read the original article, click here]