WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer on Sunday defended the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as some Republicans expressed concern over concessions the Trump administration made to get Democrats' support for the trade deal.
"There are always process issues. This bill is better now with the exception of biologics, which is a big exception," Lighthizer said on CBS's "Face the Nation", referring to a 10-year data exclusivity period for biologic drugs that was dropped from the USMCA as part of negotiations with Democrats.
"With the exception of biologics, it's more enforceable and it's better for American workers and American manufacturers and agriculture workers than it was before," he said.
"It was always my plan that this should be a Trump trade policy. And a Trump trade policy is going to get a lot of Democratic support," Lighthizer said, adding that Democrats had won the midterm election to take control of the House of Representative in 2018.
Lighthizer's remarks came after House Democrats on Tuesday announced that they had reached an agreement with the Trump administration over changes to the USMCA.
While the leaders of the United States, Canada and Mexico signed the proposed USMCA more than a year ago, House Democrats have negotiated for months with Trump administration officials to resolve their concerns about enforcement tools for labor and environmental standards as well as drug provisions in the new trilateral trade deal.
However, some Republicans and the pharmaceutical industry came out in opposition to the revised USMCA for a variety of reasons.
"We cannot support abandoning provisions that protect American companies and raise standards abroad," Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) President and CEO Stephen J. Ubl said last week in a statement.
"Eliminating the biologics provision in the USMCA removes vital protections for innovators while doing nothing to help U.S. patients afford their medicines or access future treatments and cures," Ubl said.
Republican Senator Pat Toomey on Sunday called the revised USMCA a "complete capitulation" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Richard Trumka, president of AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States.
"USMCA is an exercise, through all types of new provisions, to diminish trade - and that's why I hope Republicans will reconsider this. We've historically recognized that we are all better off with more open markets," Toomey said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has also said that the revised USMCA is "not as good as I had hoped."
