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USMCA brings North American trade into the 21st century by creating the highest standard trade agreement across disciplines for all three parties
- USMCA would raise U.S. real GDP by over $68 billion and create nearly 176,000 jobs. (USITC report)
- USMCA would increase total annual U.S. agricultural and food exports by $2.2 billion. (USITC Report)
- USMCA would increase U.S. dairy exports to Canada by $227 million and Mexico by $50.6 million. (USITC Report)
- USMCA would be the first U.S. free trade agreement with a digital trade chapter, fostering U.S. growth in the digital economy for firms of all sectors and sizes. (USMCA Coalition)
Market Access:
- Preserves and enhances U.S. duty-free access to Mexican and Canadian markets.
- Requires greater transparency in licensing for imports and exports.
- Improves regulatory compatibility and practices for trade in information and communication technology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, cosmetic products, and chemical substances.
- Minimizes redundant and unnecessary testing of exported products.
- Establishes information-sharing tools and mechanisms aimed at enabling small and medium enterprises to take advantage of USMCA.
- Eliminates local presence requirements for cross-border service providers.
Agriculture:
- Increases market access for U.S. farmers with new export opportunities for U.S. dairy, poultry and egg producers.
- Eliminates Canada’s Class 6 and 7 dairy programs that hindered U.S. exports to third-country markets.
- Provides for cooperation and information exchange on agricultural biotechnology trade matters, including gene editing.
- Prevents trade barriers disguised as food safety and animal or plant health measures by requiring such measures to be based on sound science.
- Addresses longstanding non-tariff barriers to the ability of U.S. producers to export wheat and wine to Canada.
- Creates safeguards to protect against issuance of geographic indications that would prevent United States producers from using common names to describe food products.
- Ensures that the fees for any import checks of agricultural goods are no higher than the actual cost of service and that the import check is conducted efficiently.
- Improves the transparency and functioning of approval processes for agricultural biotechnology.
Intellectual Property:
- Secures strong protections and enforcement of intellectual property rights to help drive innovation and create economic growth.
- Requires ex officio authority for customs officials to stop suspected counterfeit goods.
- Requires a minimum copyright term of the life of the author plus 70 years, or publication plus 75 years.
- Provides 10 years of data protection for agricultural chemicals.
- Continues to provide strong patent protection for innovators by enshrining patentability standards and patent office best practices.
- Requires strong standards against circumvention of technological protection measures for digital content.
- Provides for copyright safe harbors that are consistent with current U.S. law.
- Provides for criminal procedures against the unauthorized copying or transmitting of movies playing in theaters.
- Improved protections for trade secrets, including civil and criminal protections, guarantees on the ability to license trade secrets, and protection from unauthorized disclosure by courts and government officials.
Digital Trade:
- USMCA will be the first U.S. free trade agreement with a digital trade chapter, creating a strong foundation for the expansion of trade and investment in innovative digital products and services.
- Prohibits the imposition of tariffs on digital products transmitted electronically.
- Minimizes restrictions on where businesses may store and process data and on their ability to transfer data across borders.
- Limits the circumstances when governments may compel disclosure of source code and proprietary algorithms.
- Ensures that businesses may use electronic authentication and signatures to conduct digital trade.
- Ensures that consumer protections apply to digital trade.
- Promotes open access to government-generated public data.
- Limits the civil liability of internet service providers for third-party content that they host or process.
Customs & Trade Facilitation:
- Raises the “de minimis” customs thresholds under which U.S. businesses may export to Canada and Mexico with reduced paperwork and without paying taxes or duties.
- Requires making customs regulations available online.
- Eliminates the standard Certificate of Origin form, allowing parties to make a preference claim with the minimum data elements.
- Allows importers to complete a certificate of origin, instead of relying on the exporter.
- Strengthens verification authority for enforcement purposes.
Auto Rules of Origin:
- New rules will increase U.S. jobs in the automotive sector by incentivizing production in the United States and North America.
- By encouraging companies to use more U.S. content and high wage labor, USMCA will help ensure that U.S producers and workers are able to compete on a level playing field.
Financial Services:
- Expands market access for U.S. business to export electronic payments services, investment advice, and portfolio management.
- Limits the circumstances when a financial regulator may require local storage of data.
- Requires transparency in government licensing and market access authorizations.
State-Owned Enterprises:
- Imposes market disciplines and prohibits discriminatory privileges and certain subsidies.
Textiles:
- Strengthens incentives to use North American fibers, yarns, and fabrics in textile products.
Labor & Environment:
- Provides the strongest labor and environment obligations in any U.S. trade agreement and makes them fully subject to the enforcement and dispute settlement under Chapter 31.
Currency:
- Requires transparency on currency policies and addresses unfair currency practices.
Good Governance:
- Encourages regulations to be written in plain language so that the public can better understand their meaning.
- Requires most regulations to go through a notice and comment procedure so the public can see and provide input on proposed regulations.
- Requires criminal penalties for bribery and corruption, including with respect to interactions with foreign government officials.
Dispute Settlement:
- Improves enforcement of our trading rights by preventing the defending party from blocking the formation of a dispute settlement panel to decide a case.
Trade with Canada and Mexico
- North American trade supports 12 million American jobs. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)
- Trade with Canada and Mexico has more than quadrupled in the last 25 years, reaching nearly $1.4 trillion in 2018, or $3.8 billion per day. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)
- Canada and Mexico buy more American goods than our next 11 trading partners combined ($500 billion versus $460 billion). Combined, the Canadian and Mexican economies represent a half-trillion dollar market for U.S. exports (the $500 billion figure = half trillion). (NAM)
- 49 U.S. states list Canada or Mexico as one of their top three export markets. (U.S. Chamber of Commerce)
- Canada and Mexico buy one-third of U.S. merchandise exports. (USMCA Coalition)
- Of 42 manufacturing sectors, 38 have Canada or Mexico as their first or second top export market. (USMCA Coalition)
- From 1993 to 2017, U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico more than quadrupled, from $8.9 billion to $39 billion. (USMCA Coalition, citing American Farm Bureau)
- More than 120,000 American small- and medium-sized businesses export goods and services to Canada and Mexico. (USMCA Coalition)
- From 1993 to 2017, U.S. services exports to Canada and Mexico tripled from $27 billion to $91 billion. (USMCA Coalition)
