Speaker of the House Says NAFTA Clock Running Out for Congressional Session
Congress needs to be notified by May 17 of a deal for updating NAFTA in order to vote in the lame duck session, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said during a speech at the Ripon Society. "As the author of [Trade Promotion Authority], I can tell you we have to have the paper -- not just an agreement. We have to have the paper from USTR by May 17 for us to vote on it this year, in December, in the lame duck," he said on May 9. Ryan also alluded to the U.S. position on Canadian dairy protections, and his desire that Investor-State Dispute Settlement be retained in NAFTA 2.0.
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Mexican officials told reporters repeatedly this week that they're not interested in rushing to get a renegotiated NAFTA done, that a good deal is more important than a quick deal. By saying he needed more than an agreement, Ryan seemed to suggest he needs the full text, not an agreement in principle, to start the 90-day clock. "So there are a handful of unresolved issues, and I’m just not -- I don’t want to make news, but we’ll see if they can get this done by May 17 and give us the paper to Congress, which then we could have this vote in December. If they can’t, then we won’t," he said.
After a video of the speech was released by the Ripon Society, Ryan's spokeswoman sought to clarify the remarks. "The speaker was making the point that based on the TPA statute and the congressional calendar, we need to receive the notice of intent to sign soon in order to pass it this year," she said. "This is not a statutory deadline, but a timeline and calendar deadline."