U.S. House speaker says Democrats, Trump administration

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Congressional Democrats are "reasonably close" to reach an agreement with Trump administration officials over changes to a new North American trade deal, known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

"We are reasonably close ... if we can come to terms that I think we're close to doing, this will be a template for future trade agreements, and not only be good of itself but a good pattern for how we can proceed," Pelosi said during her weekly news conference.

"We have an opportunity to do it right," Pelosi said, adding she was optimistic that an agreement could be reached on the USMCA, a proposed replacement for the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.

House Democrats have been working for months to negotiate changes to the USMCA in four main areas: enforcement, labor and environmental standards and drug pricing provisions, according to U.S. media.

The Democratic House speaker also stressed that the timing of a congressional vote on the USMCA has nothing to do with the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

"Impeachment has nothing to do with it. It only has to do with our coming to agreement onto terms as far as the House of Representatives is concerned," Pelosi said.

Libby Cantrill, a managing director and head of public policy at PIMCO, a global investment management firm, believed that the impeachment inquiry could actually help get the new trade deal through the Congress.

"Even though most Democrats may support an impeachment inquiry -- and may even vote for impeachment -- they also want to be seen collaborating with the president to get important things done," Cantrill wrote in a recent analysis.

"The future of the USMCA also depends on whether the ongoing negotiations between the Trump administration and Democrats continue to be constructive, as well as whether organized labor groups endorse the trade agreement," she said.

Richard Trumka, president of AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States, has warned House Democrats not to expedite approval of the USMCA.

"If there was a vote before Thanksgiving, the agreement would be defeated," Trumka said in an interview with The Washington Post in early October, noting that the agreement remains far from complete.