OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, designed to support mutually beneficial trade leading to freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth throughout North America, is set to take effect July 1, 2020.
The agreement will help benefit Oklahoma’s agriculture sectors and stabilize markets, with wheat being the biggest beneficiary. The new agreement renovates NAFTA, the 25-year-old original agreement, into a 21st century, high-standard, mutually-beneficial agreement.
“This is an important milestone for our agriculture producers,” said Blayne Arthur, Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture. “The USMCA gives our Oklahoma farmers and ranchers access to free and fair markets across North America, helping to keep them viable and ultimately in business.”
Wheat and cattle are two of Oklahoma’s top ranked commodities, and the USMCA provides protections and market stabilizations to those producers.
North American food and agricultural exports are critical for America’s farmers and ranchers. The USMCA is designed to aid in the expansion of market access in Canada and Mexico of $450 million for U.S. Ag exports.
In 2014, every $1 billion of U.S. agricultural exports required approximately 7,550 American jobs throughout the economy, meaning roughly 286,900 agricultural jobs rely on trade with Canada and Mexico. Oklahoma alone exports $5 billion in world exports with a combined $167 million in Ag exports to Mexico and Canada.
“The USMCA’s entry into force marks the beginning of a historic new chapter for North American trade,” said Nicholas Pottebaum, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director. “The Agreement contains significant improvements and modernized approaches to rules of origin, agricultural market access, intellectual property, digital trade, financial services, labor, and numerous other sectors.”
USMCA modernizes NAFTA in important ways as it increases market access to Canada for U.S. agriculture products while maintaining duty-free access for U.S. agricultural products to Mexico. The USMCA also modernizes sanitary and phytosanitary provisions that increase transparency, advance science-based decision making and create new mechanisms for working together to resolve issues.
For more information about the USMAC and how it can benefit Oklahoma visit https://ustr.gov/usmca.