GOP/NANCY PELOSI/TARIFFS/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump’s trade chief on Tuesday [5-21-19] praised an unlikely figure on the other side of the Capitol: Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a closed-door lunch with GOP senators on Tuesday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said that he was optimistic about the prospects of getting the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement passed and said that Pelosi was focusing on it…Senate Republicans left the lunch with renewed hope about the prospects of the new trade pact with Mexico and Canada, which only weeks ago was on life support. The fortunes of Trump’s signature legislative priority were revived after the U.S. reached a deal on Friday [5-17-19] to lift onerous tariffs the president had placed on steel and aluminum with the two partner nations. In turn, Canada and Mexico removed the counter-tariffs they had slapped on more than $15 billion in U.S. exports, including many agricultural products important to Midwestern states.”
–Marianne Levine, Adam Behsudi and Sabrina Rodriguez, “Senate GOP trade hopes renewed after Trump lifts steel tariffs,” Politico, May 21, 2019 6:29 pm