01.15.20

Hoeven Statement After Appropriations Committee Approves USMCA

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven today issued the following statement after the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). 

“After USMCA was held up by the House for more than a year, the Senate is quickly working through its process to get this important agreement approved. USMCA will provide much needed certainty for our agriculture, energy and other industries. Given the challenges in farm country, we are working to approve it in the Senate as soon as possible to provide certainty regarding trade with our two biggest trading partners.”

In addition to the Appropriations Committee, USMCA has now been approved by the Finance Committee, Environment and Public Works Committee and the Budget Committee. The agreement is also being considered today by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Commerce Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee before going to the full Senate for a vote.

According to the International Trade Commission, USMCA will increase U.S. agricultural and food exports to Canada and Mexico when fully implemented. The senator worked to ensure that the USMCA benefits North Dakota producers, including eliminating Canada’s automatic downgrade of imported U.S. wheat to feed grade, which will help ensure that grading standards and services are non-discriminatory.

Additionally, USMCA makes needed modernizations on intellectual property, digital trade and financial services.

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