Vice President Mike Pence toured a St. Paul steel mill Thursday, rallying a crowd of 200 steelworkers and imploring Congress to pass the revised trade pact with Mexico and Canada.
Pence said the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would be the largest trade deal in American history. Its passage, coupled with other Trump administration economic and trade policies, would keep the U.S. economy growing, he said.
"American manufacturing has come roaring back. American steel has come roaring back," Pence said to an enthusiastic crowd of steelworkers at Gerdau Ameristeel. "We need Congress to pass the USMCA and we need Congress to pass the USMCA this year."
In response, Democrats hosted a competing event Thursday morning at the State Capitol criticizing Pence and the Trump administration as having "done real harm to the health and livelihoods" of Minnesotans, especially farmers.
Pence has embarked on a national tour this spring to rally support for the trade deal, with earlier stops in Michigan and Indiana. President Donald Trump and the leaders of Mexico and Canada signed USMCA in November at the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires. But the revised trade pact still needs congressional approval to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Clinton-era trade deal struck in 1994.
The new pact would address technological advances not envisioned when NAFTA was drafted, Pence said. The deal will benefit American workers, he said.
"We are going to level the playing field, and the American workers are going to win like never before," Pence said.
Pence said Trump's economic and trade policies have benefited American workers, particularly blue-collar workers.