US wants to avoid congressional vote on trade deal, Carney says

Source: msn/Bloomberg

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(Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Trump administration officials have been clear that they don’t want to trigger a vote in Congress by changing the “fundamental architecture” of the North American free trade deal.

Carney said the three countries in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are currently holding separate, bilateral talks on a variety of trade irritants in part because no side wants to make sweeping changes to the existing deal.

The prime minister said all those discussions are happening “in the context of maintaining the foundation” of USMCA, which President Donald Trump negotiated and which was passed by Congress during his first term. If the deal were to be “fundamentally changed, then that would have to be approved by the relevant legislatures,” Carney told reporters from Ireland, where he’s on a visit before heading to the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in France.

“The US has been clear that they do not want to go to Congress to change the fundamental architecture,” he said. The US, Canada and Mexico do almost $2 trillion in annual trade with each other, and USMCA-compliant goods have largely been exempt from Trump’s barrage of tariffs — a fact Carney pointed out again in his remarks on Saturday. Still, the White House has placed new duties on products such as autos and steel from its two neighbors, straining ties and disrupting supply chains.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/politics/government/us-wants-to-avoid-congressional-vote-on-trade-deal-carney-says/ar-AA25yWzi