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House Democrats including Ways and Means Chair Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi touted Tuesday a deal with the White House and organized labor for a revised North American Free Trade Agreement.

Neal has been active in negotiations, not just with the Trump administration, but with governments in Canada and Mexico, traveling to both capitals in recent months for high-level talks.

U.S. Trade Representative Richard Lightizer was in Mexico City Tuesday to sign the agreement, and Politico was first to report that this was the reason for his trip.

Legislatures in all three nations — the U.S. and Mexican congresses and Canadian Parliament — must till approve the deal for it to go into force.

Neal said working out a deal with Lightizer and White House wasn't easy.

"This got really hot on a number of occasions. I think we set a world record for hanging up on each other," Neal said Tuesday in a Capitol Hill press conference. "Yet we knew it was an opportunity too important to let pass."

Key to the agreement were measures to lower prices for prescription drugs in the United States and robust enforceability should violations be alleged. U.S. labor groups called for enforceability and winning over unions and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is key to getting the trade deal passed by U.S. lawmakers.

This is an agreement Democrats shaped, Neal said Tuesday, as a way of allaying fears by organized labor.

This trade agreement replaces the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

Politically, getting it passed is seen as an election-year win for Trump, but Pelosi has publicly said that passing the agreement is the right thing to do.

Democrats announced it Tuesday just as they prepared to pass articles of impeachment against Trump.

Closer to home, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker called for ratification of the deal.

Massachusetts and Canada did $10.3 billion in bilateral trade in 2018. Exports include machinery, aircraft engines and medical equipment that supports more than 200 Canadian-owned companies in Massachusetts and 20,000 direct jobs.

The agreement covers, according to the White House:

• Improved rules of origin for automobiles, trucks, other products, and disciplines on currency manipulation.
• Modernizing and strengthening food and agriculture trade in North America.
• Protections for U.S. intellectual property, and ensuring opportunities for trade in U.S. services.
• New chapters covering digital trade, anti-corruption, and good regulatory practices, as well as a chapter devoted to ensuring that small and medium sized enterprises benefit from the Agreement.

The House said the agreement will bring down the cost of prescription drugs by :

• Removed provision requiring the Parties to provide at least 10 years of exclusivity for biologics, some of the most expensive drugs on the market.
• Removed provision requiring the parties to confirm that patents would be available for new uses of known products. This provision would have locked in the practice of “patent evergreening,” in which pharmaceutical companies obtain hundreds of patents related to a product to block generic competition and price reductions.
• Removed provision requiring three additional years of exclusivity for clinical information submitted in connection with new uses of previously-approved drugs. This is another way that pharmaceutical companies delay competition and access to affordable medicines.