Washington, D.C. –Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Lead Republican of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, appeared live on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power” with David Westin to discuss the latest news on USMCA, finalizing trade agreements with China, and standing up for democracy in Hong Kong. Key highlights below: 

Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power”

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On the need to pass the USMCA: “This is an important piece of legislation and a treaty we need to put through the Congress. We are talking about 12 million American jobs, about $1.2 trillion dollars for the American people. In my home state of Texas, Mexico is the largest trading partner and it is about one million jobs for Texas and $137 billion dollars. A lot has been made about giving the President a political win. I would argue this should not be held hostage by politics. This is a win for the American worker, first and foremost. It is not a win for either political party, but rather for the American worker. It is imperative we pass this as soon as possible.”

On securing a trade deal with China: “You have to look at it in two phases. The first phase is the trade imbalance of hundreds of billions of dollars. That is the first phase and I think the most likely to get an agreement on. What your prior guest talked about was this deadline in December that I think the President will defer and not impose additional tariffs. He may actually relax those tariffs in exchange for China agreeing to import more of our agricultural commodities. This would be a huge, significant step forward. The second step deals more with the intellectual property theft, the espionage piece that I think will take a longer time to negotiate. If we can get the first phase done and we can pass USMCA, the impact on the American economy and the stock market will be really overwhelming. I think it will put every American’s pension, everyone’s 401(k) in a strong position going into next year.”

On standing with the people of Hong Kong: “We are very clear on our position with Hong Kong. We stand with freedom and democracy over dictatorship and tyranny. President Xi is misbehaving in the region. We stand with the people of Hong Kong. [President Trump] did sign our bill that we passed out of my committee, on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and we are always going to stand with human rights and freedom loving people over tyranny and dictatorship any day of the week. I don’t think that will impact, hopefully will not impact, this trade agreement with China, certainly the first phase.” 

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