During the President’s state of the union address this week, Trump said USMCA would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA0 and deliver for American workers like they hadn’t had delivered for a long time.
The USMCA deal involves over US$1 trillion of trade, including meat and poultry products, which needs to be ratified before it can come into effect.
Under the deal, a new duty-free chicken import quota would be created in Canada for American products, while agricultural goods to Mexico were also expected to grow with the new agreement.
“I hope you can pass the USMCA into law, so that we can bring back our manufacturing jobs in even greater numbers, expand American agriculture, protect intellectual property, and ensure that more cars are proudly stamped with our four beautiful words: ‘Made in the USA’,” said Trump.
Reacting to Trump’s approval, NCBA’s new president Jennifer Houston said the organisation hoped the members of both parties in both chambers heeded Trump’s call.
“With 96% of our potential customers living outside the United States, there’s no policy issue more important to American cattle producers than access to foreign markets,” said Houston. “The sooner we can secure our access to Mexico and Canada, the sooner we can focus our time, energy and resources on improving our access to lucrative markets in Asia and Europe.”
