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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 22, 2019 10:01 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill and Sen. Joseph B. Scarnati, III |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Resolution Urging Congress to Ratify USMCA on Trade |
| In the near future, we will introduce a resolution urging the United States Congress to ratify the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade as soon as possible, renew the country’s original waiver on steel and aluminum tariffs for Canada and Mexico, and remove retaliatory tariffs on all good and services exports from the United States. Canada is the United States’ largest export market ($320 billion) and the United States is Canada’s largest export market ($308 billion), as of 2017. This trade supports 9 million jobs in the United States and 2.1 million jobs in Canada. 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. By adopting the USMCA, U.S. companies will acquire robust copyright protection, 10 years of data protection for biologic drugs, and new protections against the theft of trade secrets. In addition, Canada will end its “Class 6” and “Class 7” programs that have allowed low-priced dairy products to undersell American dairy producers. This change in addition to other provisions of the USMCA will increase market access for United States dairy products, eggs, and poultry in Canadian markets. The USMCA makes a number of significant upgrades to NAFTA’s environmental and labor provisions, incorporates them into the core of the agreement, and makes them fully enforceable, which will help level the playing field for U.S. workers and businesses. Adoption of the USMCA dramatically enhances intellectual property protections. It contains a modernized, high-standard IP chapter that provides strong and effective protection and enforcement of IP rights critical to driving innovation, creating economic growth, and supporting American jobs. In addition, the agreement includes a first-of-its-kind chapter on digital trade that – among other things – ensures data can be transferred across borders and cracks down on data localization measures used to restrict where data can be stored and processed. By signing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the three countries have agreed to make targeted improvements to NAFTA that take into account the advancements of our 21st century economy sectors of digital technology and agricultural trade. Please join us in cosponsoring this resolution. |
Introduced as SR153