Group to advocate for congressional approval of trade agreement

Washington, D.C. — Last week, the National Restaurant Association joined more than 200 companies and associations representing farmers and ranchers, manufacturers, service providers, and technology companies to announce the launch of the USMCA Coalition, which will advocate for congressional approval of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The coalition will make the case for passage of the agreement to members of Congress and work to educate our members and the American public about the benefits of the new deal.

“The restaurant industry depends on global supply chains and international trade to provide meals to millions of customers daily. USMCA will strengthen trade ties with Canada and Mexico, our largest suppliers of agricultural products, preventing food shortages and higher food costs for our nation’s restaurants,” said Laura Abshire, Director of Food and Sustainability Policy. “We are pleased that USMCA maintains zero tariffs for food and agricultural products, increases agricultural market access, and ultimately provides market certainty for our members and suppliers.”

USMCA modernizes the rules for trade in North America in the following areas:

• Market Access: Maintains tariff-free access to the Mexican market for all U.S. goods exports. For Canada, maintains the current tariff-free access for 99% of U.S. products and eliminates some remaining barriers facing U.S. dairy and poultry exports.
• Agriculture: Establishes modern, science-based sanitary and phytosanitary standards that are arguably the strongest achieved in any trade agreement.
• Digital Trade: Creates best-in-class rules to foster U.S. growth in the digital economy for firms of all sectors and sizes, for example, guaranteeing the freedom to move data across borders and prohibiting the forced localization of data, thereby ensuring continued growth for a dynamic area of international commerce.
• Intellectual Property: Secures stronger protections for patents, copyrights and related rights, trademarks, designs, and trade secrets as well as strong enforcement tools to guard against counterfeiting and piracy.
• Regulatory and Technical Barriers to Trade: Promotes regulatory compatibility and best regulatory practices for ICT products, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetics, chemicals, and other products.
• Financial Services: Ensures a level playing field for U.S. financial institutions, investors and investments in financial institutions as well as cross-border trade in financial services on a nondiscriminatory basis.
• Customs: Establishes high-standard rules for customs procedures with regard to advanced rulings, simplified entry, risk management, single window, e-signatures, and self-certification of origin.
• State-Owned Enterprises: Establishes rules to ensure governments and their state-owned enterprises do not distort competition in the marketplace by guaranteeing regulatory impartiality and requiring that SOE decisions be commercially motivated.
• Competition Policy: Ensures that antitrust investigations are fair, transparent, and based on sound economic analysis.
• Enforcement: Raises the bar with the strongest enforcement provisions of any U.S. trade agreement with applicability for all chapters.

More information about the agreement and the coalition is available at www.USMCACoalition.org. For additional information, please contact Laura Abshire, Director of Food and Sustainability Policy, National Restaurant Association.