AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas has benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement more than anywhere else in the U.S. and should defend the pact against attempts by President Donald Trump’s administration to undermine it, officials from the state and Mexico said Monday.
Rolando Pablos, the Texas secretary of state, and Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, Mexico’s consul general in Austin, spoke to legislators during a hearing at the state Capitol. The comments underscore the dilemma facing many top Republicans who don’t want to openly defy Trump but oppose some of the anti-Mexican trade policies he has advocated.
Pablos said Texas-Mexico trade accounts for nearly $200 billion annually and that there is a “shared destiny” through deep family and cultural connections.
“It is so crucial that we continue to strengthen ties,” said Pablos, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in January and traveled to Mexico City last week to reassure officials there is “no stronger partnership than the one between Texas and Mexico.”
Gonzalez Gutierrez said that since NAFTA was negotiated in 1993, U.S.-Mexico trade increased six-fold to $584 billion in 2015. He said his country is now the leading trade partner for 25 states but “Texas is in a completely different league.”
“If Texas is the biggest winner in NAFTA, Texas must be its No. 1 champion,” Gonzalez Gutierrez told state lawmakers, adding that if the agreement collapsed the U.S. would lose exports to Mexico worth a total of about 1.3 percent of the value of the nation’s gross domestic product - but Texas would sustain losses equal to 6 percent of its statewide gross domestic product.
“It is imperative for Texas to take the lead and frame the terms of the debate around NAFTA,” Gonzalez Gutierrez said.
Some state leaders have expressed concerns about dismantling NAFTA, Trump’s plan to build a wall along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and a GOP plan in Congress slapping a 20 percent tax on all imported goods.
“The potential damage to the Texas economy is catastrophic,” Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat from Dallas, said Monday.
John Cornyn, the Republican majority whip in the U.S. Senate, used an op-ed last week to urge the new administration to improve, not scrap, NAFTA.
“Trade has been a cornerstone of the Texas economy, with no partner more important than Mexico,” Cornyn wrote.
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’BATHROOM BILL’ STILL FACES HURDLES
A North Carolina-style “bathroom bill” targeting transgender people faces big hurdles in Texas as Republican supporters stood with church leaders and others Monday to ratchet up political pressure ahead of a first vote this week.
Although the Texas bill is likely to sail through a Senate committee as early as Tuesday, the hotly contested measure faces a tough road ahead. It is opposed by corporate titans such as Facebook, Amazon, Google and American Airlines and celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Alicia Keys and Jennifer Lawrence.
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, a supporter of his state’s bathroom law known as HB2, is among those now enlisted to help brighten the outlook of the Texas bill. Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst also newly defended her bill in an op-ed over the weekend titled “Women’s Rights are Human Rights,” borrowing a phrase Hillary Clinton popularized during a famous 1995 speech in China.
But both are confronting a major obstacle in the Texas House, which Republicans control overwhelmingly but has shown no appetite for a law that would require people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex on their birth certificate. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also has not taken a clear side despite the national attention and backlash generated by the bill.
“North Carolina was the tip of the spear. We will be next,” Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said. He stood with Forest and religious leaders while announcing what he called “Operation 1 Million Voices” to turn out supporters.
Patrick also insisted that he had 19 of 31 votes in the Senate needed in his chamber. One Democrat, Sen. Eddie Lucio, became the first member in his party Monday to publicly support the bill.
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HOUSE UNVIELS SWEEPING SCHOOL FINANCE BILL
Top House leaders have unveiled a bipartisan bill pumping $1.6 billion extra into Texas classrooms as part of an ambitious plan overhauling how Texas pays for public education.
Sponsored by Houston Republican Rep. Dan Huberty, the bill increases per-student funding by around $200 to $5,350, while adding funding for transportation and students with dyslexia.
It will be heard in Huberty’s powerful Public Education Committee on Tuesday. Last summer, the Texas Supreme Court declared the school finance system barely constitutional.
The Texas Senate has expressed little interest in school finance reforms not mandated in court. Senators have instead backed a voucher plan offering public funding to students attending private schools.
Huberty says vouchers won’t pass the House. That could ultimately mean neither proposal, Senate vouchers nor House school finance, becomes law.
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ON DECK
The House reconvenes at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and the Senate heads back to work two hours later. Overshadowing floor sessions, though, is committee work. The Senate State Affairs Committee tackles the “bathroom bill” starting at 8 .m. and the House Public Education Committee will begin work on the school finance proposal at noon, assuming the House is finished by then.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Regardless of the legal arguments or court rulings, Texas knows that it’s time to help our children,” State Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, announcing his proposed school finance changes.
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