Rep. Pascrell faults USTR for not opening NAFTA objectives for comment

摘要

House Ways & Means trade subcommittee ranking member Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) criticized the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative for not offering stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the negotiating objectives of the North American Free Trade Agreement during the first day - June 27 - of USTR's three-day public hearing on the NAFTA renegotiation. "It is significant that for NAFTA, USTR is at this stage still asking for help in explaining why it is undertaking these negotiations in the first place," Pascrell said. "This highlights a fundamental problem that this Administration has presented for the NAFTA negotiations and for the U.S. trade agenda as a whole. We in Congress - and the American public and the companies and stakeholders that make up the American economy - are completely in the dark when it comes to what the Administration intends to do, why, and for whose benefit."