WASHINGTON—The Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives are asking President Donald Trump to reopen negotiations on the new NAFTA agreement and make changes that address the party’s concerns.

The leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. signed an agreement last year after 13 months of difficult negotiations. But the deal will not come into force unless the legislatures of the three countries vote to approve it.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s comments were the latest indication that a ratification vote is not close to happening in Congress.

Pelosi said that the text of the agreement must be changed to allow for stronger enforcement of provisions on labour standards. Pelosi said it would not be sufficient to deal with these concerns only in the U.S. legislation eventually written to implement the deal, since U.S. laws do not govern the behaviour of Canada and Mexico.

“We’re saying that enforcement has to be in the treaty, not in the implementing legislation,” Pelosi said in a public interview by the U.S. website Politico. “Implementing legislation only bears on how we act, it doesn’t have to bear on how all three countries act.”

The Canadian government has expressed opposition to a reopening. Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters last month that “Canada has done its part” and that the negotiations were “very thorough.”

Freeland told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday that the Canadian government shares Democrats’ concerns about Mexico’s labour situation.

Pelosi also said the House would not hold a vote until Mexico not only passes a new labour law, which could happen this spring, but also demonstrates “some commitment, sincerity” to putting that new law into practice.

“It’ll take some time. We have to see the evidence of what’s happening, not only that they pass the bill but they implement the policy,” Pelosi said.

Additional negotiations were needed to finalize the original NAFTA after that deal was signed in the early 1990s. In that case, “side letters,” separate from the main text of the agreement, were added to the deal package to address Democratic concerns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has called on President Donald Trump’s administration to eliminate its tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, suggesting Canada would not ratify the deal until the tariffs are gone.

If Canada did not hold a ratification vote by June, the vote almost certainly would not happen until after the Canadian federal election expected in October. That would take the U.S. firmly into the Democrats’ presidential primary season, when party legislators could be even more reluctant to vote in favour of a Trump priority.

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Citing the Canadian election, senior Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said Monday that Trump needs to remove the tariffs to get the deal done this year.

“I would think the president would want to get it done this year,” he said.

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