On Friday, Canada's government approved the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), making it the third and final party to the agreement to do so.
“USMCA is a great victory for America’s agriculture industry, and I am pleased to see Canada’s Parliament approved the deal," says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. "USMCA locks in and expands access to our neighbors to the North and South. We will continue to work with both Canada and Mexico in implementing this agreement.”
USMCA was signed into law by President Trump on January 29, 2020, after it received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress. All three countries are working together closely on implementation in advance of the agreement’s entry into force.
“Our leaders and members are thrilled to see the completion of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement's approval process and look forward to it entering into force," says U.S. Grains Council (USGC) Chairman Darren Armstrong, a farmer from North Carolina. "The list of advantages of USMCA for our sector is long."
According to USCG, the benefits include:
- Maintains zero tariffs on U.S. feed grains, co-products and ethanol
- Provides the highest enforceable sanitary and phytosanitary standards in any trade agreement to date
- Addresses regulatory equivalence, science and risk analysis, transparency and cooperative technical consultations
- Creates a rapid-response mechanism to address trade challenges
- Modernizes border procedures
- Includes an enforceable biotechnology chapter – the first ever in a U.S. trade agreement.
“Throughout the negotiations that produced USMCA, USCG has worked closely within our industry, with our customers -- particularly in Mexico -- and with the negotiating governments to ensure the needs of the U.S. grains sector were considered and the new agreement continued the success we experienced together under NAFTA," says Armstrong. "We welcomed the chance to bring Mexican buyers to the United States, U.S. farm reporters to Mexico and talk with so many stakeholders about the importance of our relationships with Canada and Mexico.
Armstrong believes the agreement will solidify the most important and strategic trade relationships with the US's closest neighbors and best customers
"It will position our industry to continue to grow with our friends and partners in Mexico and Canada," he says.
