2019年12月10日，众议院议长南希·佩洛西在DC华盛顿的国会山谈到了美国-墨西哥-加拿大协定，即所谓的美国国会大厦。美国、加拿大和墨西哥的官员将于周二在墨西哥会面，就一项新的全大陆贸易协议进行会谈，此前唐纳德·特朗普总统暗示，推动该协议通过美国国会的努力接近成功。

周二在华盛顿举行的背靠背新闻发布会——众议院司法委员会主席杰罗德·纳德勒(Jerold Nadler)宣读了针对唐纳德·特朗普总统的弹劾新闻文章，并与众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)吹捧一项罕见的两党政策成就相提并论——强调了一系列极不寻常的事件。

民主党人将特朗普的主要立法优先事项之一提到了终点，就在该党领导人努力强调对总统滥用权力和阻挠国会的指控之际。

同一天，众议院采取了历史性的步骤，对特朗普提出弹劾条款，总统对众议院民主党核心小组说了友好的话，在推特上说民主党对修订后的贸易协定的支持“将对我们的国家大有裨益”

但是民主党人似乎推翻了看似奇怪的策略，试图在特朗普关于最终协议的信息面前脱身。佩洛西和她的同事们通过强调民主党对这项被称为“美国-墨西哥-加拿大协定”的协议的贡献，努力阻止可预见的反应——总统将因带头修订北美自由贸易协定而受到赞扬，最终导致了周二的议长声明。

佩洛西说:“就我们在这里的工作而言，[协议]比政府最初提出的要好得多。”。“我要感谢[众议院筹款委员会]主席里奇·尼尔帮助我们在所有这些地方导航，我们的核心小组在具体优先事项上团结一致，以便完成工作。”

一位熟悉贸易谈判的民主党助手告诉记者，尽管这两项声明的时机可能混淆了民主党一直希望传达的任何单一信息新闻周刊这更多是由于偶然事件，而不是其他原因。

“老实说，我认为这两件事都是时间敏感的，他们只是迫不及待，”助手说。“我没有意识到这是有意的还是长期规划的产物，两者只是同时出现。我们还在玩弄政府资金、NDAA和处方药定价法案，其中至少有两项将在未来48小时内出台。这绝对是一个疯狂的时刻。”

民主党人长期以来在以令人满意的方式支持美国MCA上摇摆不定。该党坚持提供批准的印章，直到民主党的优先事项被载入任何未来的协议，包括改革处方药定价和保护环境。

现在，民主党人和白宫完全接受重新谈判的贸易协定，他们可能很快开始争论谁应该为最终达成的协议赢得信任，就像民主党代表试图向美国公众提出弹劾总统的理由一样。

民主党人似乎对他们认为是实质性的协议改革有了新的活力，他们说他们的政党在整个过程中都在推动这项改革。

“特朗普政府试图把大公司的礼物塞进美国医药学会的大制药公司...这一修改现在已经不在贸易协议中了。众议院民主党贸易工作组成员简·沙科夫斯基在周二的新闻发布会上说:“这一切都过去了。”。“在我们谈判的第一天，我告诉美国贸易代表莱奇泽，生物排他性条款需要删除，现在它们已经消失了。”

对于摇摆区的新生民主党人来说，决斗公告可能会产生意想不到的结果，对他们的连任前景有利。特朗普长期以来错误地宣称，民主党对弹劾的专注已经导致众议院的立法工作停止。将弹劾与立法成就联系起来，如果不是故意的话，可能会强调对弹劾持怀疑态度的选民的说法，即民主党仍致力于立法。

但是许多当权人物并不认为修改后的USCMA的结果有足够的说服力在弹劾过程中展开，弹劾过程在美国历史上只针对另外三位总统。

巴拉克·奥巴马总统的前高级顾问丹·普费弗认为这种权衡是不可信的。

他在推特上写道:“让特朗普两党掩盖他最大的政治弱点之一，并阻止潜在的民主党总统在15个月内谈判一项更好、更有利于工人的协议，对我来说绝对没有任何政治或实质性意义。”。

针对要求对佩洛西的言论发表评论的请求，美国贸易代表办公室指示新闻周刊Lighthizer发布的以下新闻稿:

“由于特朗普总统的领导，我们已经就美国MCA达成了历史性的协议。在过去两年与共和党人、民主党人和许多其他利益相关者合作后，我们达成了一项协议，将在未来几年惠及美国工人、农民和牧场主。这将是美国未来贸易交易的模式。”

 

AFTER NANCY PELOSI ANNOUNCES ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST TRUMP, SHE ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR TRADE DEAL

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi speaks about the US - Mexico - Canada Agreement, known as the USMCA, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, December 10, 2019. Officials from the US, Canada and Mexico will meet in Mexico on Tuesday for talks on a new continent-wide trade deal after President Donald Trump hinted that efforts to push the pact through the US Congress were close to success.

The back-to-back press conferences in Washington Tuesday— a solemn delivery of the articles of impeachment news against President Donald Trump delivered by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerold Nadler juxtaposed against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's touting of a rare bipartisan policy achievement—underscored a series of highly unusual events.

Democrats brought one of Trump's main legislative priorities to the finish line just as party leaders were working to highlight allegations of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against the president.

And on the same day the House took the historic step of introducing impeachment articles against Trump, the president had kind words for the House Democratic caucus, saying in a tweet that Democratic support for a revised trade agreement "would be great for our Country!"

But Democrats appeared to flip the seemingly odd strategy on its head, trying to get out in front of Trump's messaging on the final deal. Pelosi and her colleagues worked to forestall the foreseeable reaction—that the president would be praised for spearheading the revision of NAFTA which culminated in the speaker's announcement on Tuesday—by emphasizing contributions Democrats made to the deal, known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"In terms of our work here, [the deal] is infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration," Pelosi said. "And I credit [House Ways and Means Committee] Chairman Richie Neal for helping us navigate all of these places, the unity of our caucus on specific priorities, in order to get the job done."

While the timing of both announcements may have confounded any singular message the Democrats had been hoping to convey, a Democratic aide familiar with the trade negotiations told Newsweek that this was more due to happenstance than anything else.

"Honestly, I think both things were time-sensitive and they just couldn't wait," the aide said. "I don't have a sense that this was intended or the product of long term planning, both things just came together at the same time. We're also juggling government funding, NDAA, and the prescription drug pricing bill, of which at least two will hit in the next 48 hours. It's an absolutely crazy time."

Democrats had long wavered on backing the USMCA in a fulsome way. The party held out on providing its stamp of approval until Democratic priorities were enshrined in any prospective deal, including those reforming prescription drug pricing and protecting the environment.

Now offering a full embrace of the renegotiated trade pact, Democrats and the White House could soon begin sparring over who deserves credit for the finalized agreement just as Democratic representatives try to make the case for impeaching the president to the American public.

Democrats appeared newly reinvigorated about reforms to the agreement they felt were substantial, and which they said their party pushed for throughout the process.

"The Trump administration tried to tuck in big corporate gifts to Big Pharma in the USMCA... that revision is now out of the trade deal. It is gone," Rep. Jan Schakowsky, a member of the House Democrats' Trade Working Group, said at Tuesday's press conference. "On the first day of our negotiations, I told U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer that the biologic exclusivity provisions needed to be removed, and now they are gone."

For freshmen Democrats in swing districts, the dueling announcements might have the unintended consequence of being beneficial for their re-election prospects. Trump has long claimed, falsely, that Democrats' preoccupation with impeachment has ground legislative work in the House to a halt. Tying impeachment, if not deliberately, to a legislative accomplishment could underscore the narrative for impeachment-skeptical voters that Democrats are still committed to lawmaking.

But many establishment figures did not find the results of the revamped USCMA compelling enough to roll out during the impeachment process, one that has only been pursued against three other presidents in the country's history.

Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama, found the trade-off unconvincing.

"Giving Trump bipartisan cover on one of his biggest political vulnerabilities and preventing a potential Democratic President from negotiating a better, more worker-friendly deal in 15 months makes absolutely no political or substantive sense to me," he wrote on Twitter.

In response to a request for comment about Pelosi's remarks, the Office of the United State Trade Representative directed Newsweek to the following press release from Lighthizer:

"Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we have reached an historic agreement on the USMCA. After working with Republicans, Democrats, and many other stakeholders for the past two years we have created a deal that will benefit American workers, farmers, and ranchers for years to come. This will be the model for American trade deals going forward."