ACA Urges Congress to Adopt the USMCA

On Oct. 15, ACA and more than 350 industry groups, urged Congress to support the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). In a letter to members of Congress, ACA and the others stressed that USMCA is critical to the nation’s economic future because it will preserve and strengthen U.S. trade ties to Canada and Mexico.

ACA and its cosignors asked Congress to consider and approve the USMCA, underscoring that it is essential to promoting certainty and growth for manufacturing businesses, workers and families across the United States—each of whom relies on trade with our North American partners to prosper and grow.

North America is the most significant trade market for the United States globally, with Canada and Mexico purchasing one-fifth of the total value of U.S. manufacturing output. Canada and Mexico alone, despite representing less than 4 percent of the global economy, buy more U.S.-manufactured goods than our next 11 trading partners combined. Here at home, U.S. manufacturing exports to Canada and Mexico support millions of American manufacturing jobs as well as 40,000 small and medium-sized businesses and communities across all 50 states.

Notably, the U.S. coatings manufacturing base exports a significant portion of its production to Mexico and Canada — approximately $1.85 billion in 2018, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the industry’s exports — and the United States benefits from a consistently strong trade surplus with both countries.

The USMCA makes significant improvements to the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and will spur growth and much-needed certainty within the critical North American market, including provisions that will do the following:

• Strengthen and Modernize America’s Innovation Engine: The USMCA includes best-in-class intellectual property rules that will help protect the full range of U.S. manufacturing inventions and innovations from theft and set new standards for the 21stcentury digital economy that will prohibit distortive measures that undermine American innovation.
• Expand U.S. Manufacturing Access to Canada and Mexico: The USMCA will maintain and improve duty-free market access to Canada and Mexico, eliminating red tape at the border and making it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to sell into these critical markets.
• Level the Playing Field: The USMCA will raise standards, improve transparency and prohibit both anti-U.S. discrimination and anti-competitive activity — all while providing the same binding enforcement for all obligations in the agreement.

ACA and the other industry groups urged both the House of Representatives and the Senate to make consideration and approval of the USMCA a top priority this autumn to promote the continued growth of America’s manufacturing sector and well-paying manufacturing jobs across the United States.

Contact ACA’s Heidi McAuliffe for more information.

The post ACA Urges Congress to Adopt the USMCA appeared first on American Coatings Association.

from American Coatings Association https://www.paint.org/usmca-letter-oct/
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