12/10/2019

FOREIGN DIGNITARIES/MEXICO/NANCY PELOSI/TRADE DEALS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Nancy Pelosi sat Mexico’s top trade negotiator and foreign minister down in her office and gave the two men an ultimatum. It was late September, and Democrats feared Mexico was not going to implement labor protections mandated by the new North American trade agreement. So Pelosi convened a small, private meeting, looked Mexican Undersecretary for North America Jesús Seade and Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard in the eye, and said: ‘You have got to do this.’ They backed down…On Tuesday [12-10-19], top trade officials from the U.S., Mexico and Canada finalized a sweeping agreement to update the old NAFTA trade deal in an unusual alliance that won the backing of the powerful AFL-CIO labor federation, President Donald Trump and House Democrats.”

Megan Cassella, “‘We ate their lunch’: How Pelosi got to ‘yes’ on Trump’s trade deal,” Politico, December 10, 2019 2:56 pm