In the News

While House Democrats were publicly battling with President Trump over impeachment this fall, Representative Richard Neal was a key player in the final stages of a drama playing out behind the scenes: the effort to get a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada across the finish line.

For more than six months, Neal, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, juggled meetings with White House officials, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and labor leaders; trips to Mexico and Canada; and intense phone conversations with US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — so many ending with one of them angrily hanging up that Neal said they must have “set a world record” — even as he was involved in the Democrats’ impeachment effort.

On Tuesday, shortly after he stood by Pelosi’s side as she unveiled two articles of impeachment against Trump, Neal was front and center as House Democrats announced an agreement with the Trump administration to move forward on what he called “a transformative new agreement” and a “triumph” for workers everywhere.

“Every once in awhile, you get to participate in an it-will-never happen moment,” Neal said. “And we are witnessing that today.”

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, is meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994. The new pact includes stronger protections for workers and new enforcement mechanisms to address trade disputes and violations, as well as the removal of provisions that Neal and other Democrats said have contributed to high prescription drug prices in the United States.

“There is no question, of course, that this trade agreement is better than NAFTA,” Pelosi said Tuesday, calling Neal the “maestro” who helped navigate the negotiations. “It is infinitely better than what was proposed by the administration.”

The trade deal, hailed by both Democrats and Republicans, was seen as a victory for Trump, who had made its ratification one of the top priorities of his presidency.

Trump promised during the 2016 campaign to renegotiate NAFTA. Representatives from the United States, Canada, and Mexico originally struck a new deal in November 2018, but the pact needs congressional approval. Democrats had worked since then to address their concerns over labor and environmental standards. After coming to terms with the Trump administration, the House could vote on it by the end of the year.

“It will be the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA,” Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Good for everybody — Farmers, Manufacturers, Energy, Unions — tremendous support. Importantly, we will finally end our Country’s worst Trade Deal, NAFTA!”

Pelosi pushed back Tuesday against liberal criticism that she was handing Trump a victory heading into an election year, saying Congress shouldn’t walk away from an opportunity to help America’s workers.

Asked whether the agreement could be seen as a win for the president, Neal said in a phone interview, “We think this is a win for creating a new template for trade agreements, and in the end this is light years away from where the old NAFTA agreement was and light years away from what we took from the president a year ago.”

Neal has a reputation as a measured politician who shies away from controversial or partisan issues, and he has irritated some liberals for not being more aggressive in investigating Trump. He took weeks last winter after gaining the chairmanship to request Trump’s tax returns, and was reluctant to join Democrats’ calls for an impeachment inquiry.

But crafting the trade agreement played to Neal’s strengths, and he did not lose sight of the task, sometimes expressing frustration that reporters were more interested in talking with him about impeachment than the renegotiation of a trans-hemispheric deal that he said was consequential to his state, the United States, and the world. Canada is the top export market for Massachusetts followed by China and Mexico.

Neal opposed the original NAFTA because of its lack of enforcement provisions and concerns it would lead to the outsourcing of local manufacturing and high-tech jobs. He said he and Pelosi were determined “to get a good deal for the American worker” this time even as the impeachment frenzy overtook Washington.

“I can say this with unflinching honesty that the subject never came up privately, publicly, or with any meetings of the speaker,” Neal said. “I think we did a good job of compartmentalizing the topic.”

Tuesday’s announcement was the culmination of a final push over the weekend that spilled into Neal’s Sunday afternoon trying to watch the New England Patriots game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

“On Sunday, when Tom Brady was about to take it in, all of a sudden I looked at my phone and it said Pelosi for caller ID,” Neal said. “Long wisdom tells me, the hell with Brady, take the call.”