Schumer votes against USMCA, citing climate implications

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats announced Thursday they would not support the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), citing the proposed deal’s failure to address climate change.

“Despite the fact that it includes very good labor provisions, I am voting against USMCA because it does not address climate change, the greatest threat facing the planet,” Schumer said in a statement.

“Instead of advancing global climate security by outlining binding and enforceable climate commitments from all three countries, the Trump administration provides significant incentives for manufacturers to move their business and their jobs from the U.S. to Mexico, where clean air and clean water regulations are much weaker,” he continued.

“Meanwhile, the Trump administration also included handouts for the oil and gas industry, such as lifting tariffs on tar sands, and refused to include any mention of the climate crisis in the agreement,” Schumer added, citing his previous vote against the North American Free Trade Agreement and saying the USMCA shares many of the same problems from a climate perspective.

Several other Democrats opposed the trade deal citing climate concerns, including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), Kamala Harris (Calif.), Ed Markey (Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I), Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Sanders mentioned climate change as a factor in his opposition to the deal during Tuesday’s night’s debate, only to be cut off by the moderator who promised to address climate change later.

“But they’re the same,” Sanders retorted.

Gillibrand called the deal a “missed opportunity to address the urgent threats we face from climate change. It fails to close loopholes for corporate polluters or set binding, enforceable standards to protect clean air and water.” 

Schumer made his announcement shortly before the Senate was set to vote on the revised North American trade deal on Thursday. The measure overwhelmingly passed the upper chamber in an 89-10 vote after the House signed off on it in December following months of closed-door negotiations.

Schumer’s statement praised Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Democrats, as well as Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, for securing workers’ rights provisions within the final version of the deal.

“But on the greatest issue facing our planet, addressing the climate crisis, the USMCA falls far too short,” he added.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler defended the deal’s climate credentials on Twitter, saying it “provides some of the strongest environmental protections ever negotiated in a free trade agreement, including important provisions to combat marine litter.”

Numerous Senate Democrats have announced their support for the deal, including progressive figures such as Brown and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a Democratic presidential candidate.

Updated at 4:50 p.m.