PRINTER'S NO. 1503
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
HOUSE RESOLUTION
No.
248
Session of
2019
INTRODUCED BY M. K. KELLER, TURZAI, DeLUCA, HERSHEY, JAMES,
KAUFFMAN AND PICKETT, APRIL 25, 2019
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, APRIL 25, 2019
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Urging the Congress of the United States to ratify the United
States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on Trade.
WHEREAS, The United States and Canada have one of the largest
trading relationships in the world; and
WHEREAS, Canada is the United States' largest export market,
valued at $320 billion ($411 billion Canadian) in goods and
services in 2017, and the United States is Canada's largest
export market, valued at $308 billion ($396 billion Canadian) in
goods and services in 2017; and
WHEREAS, This trade supports 9 million jobs in the United
States and 2.1 million jobs in Canada; and
WHEREAS, In the more than 20 years since the United States,
Canada and Mexico entered into the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA), trade among these countries tripled from $340
billion in 1993 to $1.2 trillion in 2016; and
WHEREAS, North American integration of trade under NAFTA has
helped to make the region more competitive in the world economy
by providing highly integrated and valuable supply chains,
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common rules and harmonized regulations that increase the speed
and global competitiveness of one another's businesses and by
driving investment and embedding value in each other's economic
success, such as creating jobs in North American communities;
and
WHEREAS, Canada and Mexico are the first-ranked and third-
ranked markets, respectively, for agriculture exports from the
United States at an estimated $20.6 billion sent to Canada and
$18.6 billion sent to Mexico, up from $8.7 billion in 1992, the
year that NAFTA was signed; and
WHEREAS, The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement comes at a
time when the use of tariffs on steel and aluminum, announced by
the United States in March 2018, with a revocation of trade-
related waivers in June 2018, resulted in imposition of
retaliatory tariffs of $12.8 billion from Canada and $3 billion
in retaliatory tariffs from Mexico on products from the United
States; and
WHEREAS, In signing the United States-Mexico-Canada
Agreement, the three countries have agreed to make targeted
improvements to NAFTA and build on the successful partnership
and the shared competitiveness in the global marketplace in
which free, fair, open and mutually beneficial trade helps to
strengthen the economies of all countries; therefore be it
RESOLVED (the Senate concurring), That the General Assembly
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania urge:
(1) the Congress of the United States to ratify the
United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade by all
countries as soon as possible;
(2) the Administration of the United States to renew
this country's original waiver on steel and aluminum tariffs
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for Canada and Mexico; and
(3) Canada and Mexico to subsequently remove retaliatory
tariffs on all goods and services exports from the United
States;
and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Secretary of the Commonwealth send copies
of this resolution to the President of the United States, the
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the
Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Consulate of
Canada in Colorado and the Consulate of Mexico in Colorado.
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