Statewide Iowa — Iowa politicians, commodity groups and Iowa’s business community are celebrating news of a deal that will lead to U.S. House ratification of a new trade agreement to replace NAFTA.
Passage of the U-S-Mexico-Canada Agreement will close out 2019 with a win for farmers who’ve had a difficult year, according to the Iowa farmer who’s president of the National Corn Growers.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says President Trump kept his campaign promise to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and Grassley says Americans will reap many benefits from the new deal. Republican Senator Joni Ernst, though, says an end-of-the-year vote in the Democratically-led House is dangerous, because Republicans who lead the Senate won’t have time to hold a vote to ratify the U-S-M-C-A before 2020. 4th District Republican Congressman Steve King, says House Democrats “didn’t want to face criticism” so they announced a deal on the U-S-M-C-A on the same morning they revealed articles of impeachment against President Trump.
King says House Democrats are trying to use passage of the U-S-M-C-A as “frosting” to cover up the impeachment saga.
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Original post 12:30 pm 12/10/2019
Washington, D.C. — A deal has reportedly been reached in the case of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Energy & Rural Development, released a statement regarding the announcement of a deal on the trade agreement.
Senator Ernst said, “Iowans in every corner of our state have been waiting far too long for Congress to act on the USMCA and now, after months of delay, House Democrats are finally coming on board. President Trump and our Trade Representative Bob Lighthizer negotiated this modernized agreement with our nation’s farmers and workers in mind–knowing the USMCA will provide an economic boon and certainty to folks back home. I’ll be reviewing the updated language, and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to put politics aside and give the hardworking men and women across Iowa and this great nation a huge win.”