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NCBA insisting USMCA gets done this year

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association insists the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement gets ratified in 2019.

NCBA senior director of trade Kent Bacus says they are putting pressure on the Senate following Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s comments about waiting until after the holiday break to take up USMCA.

“I think delaying it for political reasons or anything else, (is wrong). The Senate does not need to go home. The Senate can stay there and do their job because farmers and ranchers can’t relax until these agreements are done. So why should Congress take any time off?”

The House is expected to vote on USMCA this week.

Speaking to Brownfield at the Minnesota Cattle Industry Convention Friday, Bacus says the Senate needs to follow suit.

“I cannot stress enough (that) the closer this moves to 2020 and the further it moves into 2020, it is subject to becoming the political punching bag for people running for president.”

Bacus says that’s what happened with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which President Trump withdrew from early in his term.