WASHINGTON—More than 350 representatives of U.S. business—including the Auto Care Association, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association and the National Association of Manufacturers—have submitted a letter to Congress, urging passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
The USMCA is the Trump administration's proposed successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement approved during the Clinton administration.
The signatories to the Oct. 15 letter urged congressional passage of the USMCA as soon as possible this autumn.
"Doing so is essential to promotion certainty and growth for manufacturing businesses, workers and families across the U.S.," the letter read.
According to the letter, the USMCA makes significant improvements to NAFTA. Among the improvements cited in the letter are:
- Provisions for intellectual property rules that will protect the full range of U.S. manufacturing innovations from theft and set new standards for the digital economy that prohibit measures to undermine American innovation.
- Provisions for maintaining and improving duty-free access to Canadian and Mexican markets and eliminating red tape at the border, making it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to export to those markets.
- Provisions to level the playing field through raising standards, improving transparency and prohibit discrimination and anti-competitive activity against U.S. business.
Besides the ACA, MEMA and the NAM, signatories to the letter included Dow, DuPont, General Motors, Ford, Parker-Hannifin Corp., the American Trucking Associations and the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.