May 17 NAFTA deadline

Paul Ryan, powerful Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, says the negotiators for a new North American Free Trade Agreement need to make a deal by May 17 if they want approval this year.

Under the “fast track” trade negotiating law, there are lengthy notification periods before U.S. President Donald Trump could sign a new North American Free Trade Agreement and before Congress could begin considering it.

Letting negotiations drag on much longer would delay consideration to a new Congress elected in November that will take office in January 2018. Polls indicate Trump’s Republicans will lose some seats to Democrats who will be critical of any NAFTA deal Trump’s team reaches.

“We have to have the paper — not just an agreement, we have to have the paper — from United STR btates Trade Relations Office May 17 for us to vote on it this year, in December, in the lame duck” session, Ryan said.

A spokeswoman for Ryan said that he was referring to a notification of intent to sign the NAFTA agreement, not necessarily the full text.

The negotiators are in Washington this week. Supply management remains an issue that has not been resolved.