On the recordJanuary 15, 2020
this afternoon, the Finance Committee is kicking off this debate. I will have some remarks, and then the distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator Grassley, will have some remarks, and Senator Brown, who has played such a key role in the enforcement issues, will follow. I am glad we are getting on this debate. There is a lot to say about this topic, and I want to talk first about how the new NAFTA got to this point. In the 2016 Presidential campaign, then-candidate Trump said he was going to pull the United States out of NAFTA. He said it was ``the worst trade deal maybe ever signed anywhere, but certainly ever signed in this country.'' As President, Donald Trump went in a different direction. After negotiating with Canada and Mexico, the Trump administration announced a deal in 2018 that actually doubled down on several key mistakes of the original NAFTA. The new NAFTA the Trump administration came up with was way, way too weak on enforcement of the trade laws. Here in the Senate, we Democrats said it wasn't good enough--not even close--to get through the Congress. So we got down to work and we fixed it. The bill we will be considering is the end product of all that work. This legislation is now the first real measure of certainty and predictability on the crucial issue of trade which American workers, our businesses, and families have. It is the first real measure of certainty and predictability since the beginning of the Trump administration.…





