Food and ag groups, companies urge Congress to pass USMCA
Congress must pass the trade agreement, letter says, to enable food and agriculture to trade more fairly with top two markets.
A group of 67 food and agriculture associations and companies sent a letter on May 6 to Congressional leadership and all 535 Congressional offices strongly urging lawmakers to vote to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
According to the Washington, D.C.-based International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), groups and companies from across the food and agriculture spectrum underscored in the letter that the new agreement includes important improvements that will enable food and agriculture to trade more fairly, as well as to expand exports of American agricultural products, to Canada and Mexico. Furthermore, the letter states, a recent analysis of the USMCA by the International Trade Commission (ITC) found the deal to be a boon for the U.S. economy, potentially raising U.S. gross domestic product by $68.2 billion and pumping an additional $2.2 billion, or 1.1%, into the U.S. economy through increases in agricultural and food exports.