News

NASDA and ag groups urge Congress to ratify USMCA

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and a coalition of food and ag groups are urging lawmakers to ratify the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement.

Barb Glenn, CEO of the association, says the new agreement is critical to NASDA, which represents the commissioners, secretaries, and directors of all the state departments of agriculture.

“The reason USMCA is important to NASDA members is because ag exports are critical for the farmers and ranchers in their states and businesses – large, medium, and small,” she says.

Nearly 70 food and ag groups, including NASDA, sent a letter to every congressional office on Monday in support of ratifying the USMCA as soon as possible.

Glenn says the groups welcome the opportunity to modernize the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“USMCA represents the momentum from the years of NAFTA and it’s undoubted that ag exports to Canada and Mexico have more than quadrupled,” she says.

She says NASDA also supports agricultural biotechnology provisions in the agreement.

“Provisions on transparency, the advancing science-based decision making, and there’s a new provision to advance ag innovation specifically for North American collaboration on gene editing,” she says.

But, Glenn says tariffs continue to hinder progress.

“American agriculture is suffering because of Canadian and Mexican retaliatory tariffs that have been imposed, so this tit for tat relationship simply sucks the great growth we see with USMCA,” she says.

The groups say Congress must pass the USMCA as Canada and Mexico account for more than $45 billion in U.S. ag exports and support more than one million jobs.

Audio: Barb Glenn, National Association of State Departments of Agriculture