Washington, D.C. — Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Marietta) joined her House colleagues yesterday to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which replaces the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The new agreement is supported by both the business community and organized labor, and will benefit American businesses and workers.
“The passage of the USMCA solidifies our efforts to protect workers, ensure a stable framework for a thriving economy, set a fair and equal standard for international trade, preserve access to affordable prescription drugs, and require improved environmental guidelines,” said McBath. “Over the last year, I have heard from business owners across the Sixth District who have been asking for a trade agreement that strengthens our economy and protects hardworking Americans. We achieved that goal on behalf of the American people this week. Because of the work of Congressional leadership, the White House, and our global partners, we have found a better deal that ensures our North American businesses are competitive, our workers are empowered, and our economies are strong.”
“UPS applauds Representative McBath and the entire House of Representatives on working together to pass a modernized USMCA that better reflects today’s digital economy and will support small and women-owned businesses in both the regional and global supply chain,” said Laura Lane, President of UPS Global Public Affairs. “While no trade agreement is perfect, we believe the USMCA in its totality will preserve and strengthen North American trade and U.S. competitiveness. We look forward to the Senate passing the bill on a bipartisan basis so that American companies and workers, including the more than 15,700 UPS employees at our Corporate Headquarters and 260 facilities in the state of Georgia, can continue to benefit from the economic growth and jobs that the agreement will spur.”
"Uncertainty is the most insidious risk for small businesses," said Scott Hampton, CEO of Tropic Isle Living. "I’m excited to see that the USMCA is going to make trade predictable, protect the incomes of working Americans, and protect the environment, because we all need healthy food, air and water.”
The USMCA includes improvements to bolster America’s businesses, support workers, protect the environment, and bring down prescription drug prices. Some of its improvements include:
Enforcement: Fixing loopholes that allowed countries to avoid being held accountable and introducing new rules of evidence to make enforcement more effective and fair.
Workers: Strengthening standards to make them enforceable; creating new mechanisms to monitor labor rule compliance in Mexico; enforcing the commitment that parties trade only in goods that comply with the agreement’s rules on workers; and a new labor enforcement mechanism that promotes American jobs, creates stronger rules to protect workers from violence and prosecute labor violations, and holds non-compliant actors accountable
Restored Environmental Protections: Reinstating high standards that recognize the environment’s connection to trade, establishing provisions that will regularly monitor Mexico’s environment laws, regulations, and practices, and creating new mechanisms to monitor environmental rule compliance in Mexico. USMCA also includes new environment customs verification mechanism to make sure there is no illegal trade of plants or wildlife.
Access to Medicines: Preserving Congress’s ability to legislate to bring down prescription drug prices by removing big giveaways to pharmaceutical companies and changing the rules to promote fair competition and patients’ access to affordable medicines.
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