Californians are a resilient bunch. They have weathered power outages, fires, and droughts—not to mention government edicts and costs. Despite it all, hardworking employees and fearless entrepreneurs continue to not only sustain the economy, but to lift it to new and innovative heights.
Before the year is out, it’s time for Washington to reward their efforts and pass USMCA, the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement.
California’s climate is as diverse as its many industries, and manufacturing still plays a big part in the state’s economy. Across the state, more than 1.3 million jobs are tied to the manufacturing industry, making products from computer equipment to semiconductors to auto parts.
Thanks, in part, to relatively free trade with our North American neighbors, 95,000 Californians have well-paying manufacturing jobs, earning nearly double that of workers across all private non-farm industries.
Overall, strengthening our trading relationship with Canada and Mexico is of undeniable importance to the U.S. economy and the millions of workers across the country whose livelihoods rely on free trade with those two countries. By ratifying this new trade agreement negotiated between North America’s leaders, Congress can do its part to help American workers.
At its core, the USMCA makes substantial improvements that build upon the now-outdated North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA—the agreement it will replace when enacted—in order to better serve the interests of American workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses and support mutually beneficial trade. It will promote freer markets, fairer trade, and robust economic growth in the United States and across North America.
The USMCA will also pave the way for better protections in medical research and manufacturing from the Biotech facilities at California’s U.S. Davis to its Lawrence Livermore National Labs. It includes best-in-class intellectual property rules to protect the full range of U.S. inventions and innovations, including new regulations designed to strengthen the protection and enforcement of intellectual property and improved anti-corruption punishments. Moreover, this trilateral deal sets the framework for future digital trade agreements that will unharness unprecedented American innovation.
For more than a century, the United States has led the way in innovation, invention, and economic prosperity. By passing the USMCA, we can make sure it’s U.S. innovators and workers who continue leading the charge.
