Trade – On Two Fronts – This Week’s Biggest Topic

(WASHINGTON, DC) This will be a busy week for trade and trade negotiators. U.S. Trade Ambassador Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin travel to China in an attempt to bring the trade dispute between the two countries to an end. It comes as CNBC reports Clete Willems, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, who has served as the lead trade negotiator for the U.S. at multilateral summits like the G-7 and G-20 and has been active in talks with China is set to leave the White House soon. On Tuesday, President Trump will begin the process of lining up votes for a new free-trade agreement known as USMCA, or the U.S. Mexican Canadian Agreement, the replacement for a 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Leaders of all three countries have signed the new pact, but now Congress will need to ratify it this year. Trump is inviting Republican Congressional members to the White House to begin securing votes for passage. The fate of the agreement, which Congress can only vote for or against, seems questionable for a Democratic-controlled House and Republican-led Senate. Agricultural interests overwhelmingly support passage of the new agreement.