Trade Subcommittee Ranking Member Predicts NAFTA Vote Will Come Within 4 Months

After 25 Republican House members met with President Donald Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to talk about how to ratify the new NAFTA, Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., said on Fox Business News March 26 that he thinks Congress can do it before the August recess.

"I think we can," said Buchanan, who is the ranking member on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. "We're in the process of whipping the vote," he said. He said the continuing tariffs on steel and aluminum on Canada and Mexico -- and the retaliatory tariffs they imposed -- will need to come off to get the majority of Republicans on board. He does not want them replaced by quotas, but did not say that he thinks a quota-free solution is necessary to get the vote count. "We've got a lot of momentum," he said, and after hearing about Lighthizer's meetings with Democrats, he said, "it seems like there's some momentum there as well."

Buchanan said the deal needs 30 Democratic votes to pass the House -- but there's an open question of whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would bring the bill to the floor if the vast majority of her caucus is against it.