Today, the U.S-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) officially enters into force, a culmination of years of work to update and improve the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), offering partners improved agricultural market access and freer, fairer trade between the countries.
“This agreement solidifies our country’s most important and strategic trade relationships with our best customers and promises further economic growth in tandem with our most-valued partners – Mexico and Canada,” said Darren Armstrong, U.S. Grains Council (USGC) chairman. “We appreciate the administration’s hard-won efforts to deliver and implement an agreement that includes significant improvements and offers more modern approaches to trade and we thank our partners in both Canada and Mexico whose efforts have been equally appreciated and fruitful.”
From negotiations to ratification, the Council worked and continues to work within the industry and with Canadian and Mexican corn, sorghum, barley, co-products and ethanol customers to ensure the needs of the U.S. grains sector are met and USMCA will build on the success the U.S. experienced under NAFTA.
“We often hosted Mexican buyers to the United States, sent U.S. farmers on missions to Mexico and have continued to market the importance of our trade relationships with our stakeholders in both countries,” said Armstrong. “Both the Council’s leaders and members are very pleased to see USMCA enter into force today and look forward to many prosperous years for our country’s farmers and those in Mexico and Canada.”
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Contact:
Bryan Jernigan, (202) 603-3891, bjernigan@grains.org
About The U.S. Grains Council
The U.S. Grains Council develops export markets for U.S. barley, corn, sorghum and related products including distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and ethanol. With full-time presence in 28 locations, the Council operates programs in more than 50 countries and the European Union. The Council believes exports are vital to global economic development and to U.S. agriculture’s profitability. Detailed information about the Council and its programs is online at www.grains.org.