United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOLDING. Mr. Speaker, it has been over a year since President Trump successfully negotiated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
This is a good deal that will benefit every corner of the country. USMCA will empower businesses of all sizes to grow and create jobs, and it is a substantial improvement over NAFTA.
Mr. Speaker, as it turns out this week is the 116th Anniversary of the Wright Brothers making the first flight in a powered aircraft. As we all know, the Wright Brothers were innovators and they traveled to North Carolina for this historic achievement.
To this day, North Carolina continues to attract the world's most creative and innovative workforce. One prime example is the enormous amount of pharmaceutical research that takes place. Lifesaving drugs are being made in my back yard and the world is better off for it.
This Administration was successful in getting Mexico and Canada to raise their exclusivity protections for cutting-edge biologic drugs. This was a monumental achievement. It is incredibly disappointing that Democrats sought to weaken these standards and actively worked against American innovators. These standards would have protected the hard work that is done by our health care industry as they work to come up with new cures and save more lives.
By striping these protections from the final agreement--Congressional Democrats have effectively kneecapped the dedicated scientists, doctors and manufacturers working around the clock to develop new cures.
I have a tough time understanding why American lawmakers would actively advocate against the interest of American companies trying to do business abroad.
Ensuring that American innovators' rights are protected in Mexico and Canada would have had no impact on drug pricing. The Ways and Means Committee has been over that topic before, and to insinuate that there is a correlation between protecting our inventions in Mexico and higher drug prices in the U.S. is disingenuous.
While I support the USMCA, the absence of these protections is a missed opportunity and we should do better.
Miss GONZALEZ-COLON of Puerto Rico. Mr. Speaker, trade with Canada and Mexico is a crucial component of our economy. Last year, the U.S. exported just over $565 billion in goods to these two nations. It is estimated that approximately 12 million American jobs rely on North American trade.
Our Nation's trade partnership with Canada and Mexico is particularly important for our state and local economies. In Puerto Rico, for example, exports to these two countries totaled $1.38 billion in 2018. This represents an increase of 161 percent from pre-NAFTA levels in 1993, when exports from the Island to Canada and Mexico totaled just $528.8 million.
Our economy clearly requires that we preserve and strengthen U.S. trade ties with Canada and Mexico. To achieve this, we must pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
USMCA would not only ensure that U.S. manufacturers, farmers, and service providers can continue to access the Canadian and Mexican markets, but it would also rebalance and modernize NAFTA--our outdated trade agreement--into a 21st century, high-standard trade deal.
For instance, USMCA creates a new digital trade chapter and includes provisions to strengthen intellectual property (IP) protections critical to driving innovation. This is particularly important for jurisdictions like Puerto Rico, which is the top U.S. exporter of pharmaceutical and medicine products.
USMCA similarly seeks to level the playing field for workers by including enforceable labor standards. It is also the first trade agreement with a chapter focusing specifically on small and medium- sized businesses to help them grow and reach new markets.
The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that USMCA would boost GDP by $68.2 billion and would add roughly 176,000 jobs.
USMCA is a clear win for our Nation.
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