[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 121 (Thursday, July 18, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4931-S4932]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Trade

  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, something I want to talk about today is 
something that you and I both care a lot about, and that is farming 
families and trade. For those of us who grew up on or near farming 
families, we know that there are a lot of things that are beyond the 
control of families who farm. For farming and ranching families, the 
only real certainty is uncertainty.
  The only thing you know for sure, if your mom or dad is a dairy 
farmer, like my mom and dad were, is that you don't know anything for 
sure. You don't know about the weather. You don't know absolutely for 
sure that all of your equipment is going to work exactly like you need 
it to and at exactly the time you need it to.
  In some farming situations, you don't know whether the help you need 
is going to be available the day you need it. The watermelons can't 
wait. The strawberries can't wait. The tomatoes can't wait. But you 
can't have a staff on all the time, ready to pick the watermelon the 2 
weeks they need to be picked, or whatever those farmers have to deal 
with.
  Uncertainty is part of farming. That is why trade agreements with 
other countries are so important to America's agriculture. This is a 
part of our economy that not only feeds our country but goes so far 
toward feeding the whole world. Trade agreements can provide a little 
bit of certainty about markets and the opportunities people have to 
sell the products they are able to grow.
  In Missouri, agriculture is an $88 billion industry. It employs 
nearly 400,000 people in our State. Missouri farmers and ranchers 
export more than $4 billion worth of products every year.
  Trade deals that lower tariffs that are paid by Missouri farming and 
ranching families are a good deal now. I could go a long way beyond 
this, too, because not only does the agricultural sector impact people 
who make agricultural products but seeds and chemicals that we need 
fewer and fewer of all the time because people who make and repair 
machinery get more effective all the time. So both in the seed and 
chemical area but also people in transportation, people in insurance, 
people who run the local coffee shop, people whom the school district 
depends on for those property taxes are all benefited by a strong 
agricultural sector.
  We make lots of other things in our State too. We make airplanes. We 
make pickup trucks. We make cars. We make beer cans. We make all kinds 
of things that are impacted by trade, but I say to the Presiding 
Officer, particularly when you and I are out talking in our neighboring 
States with the communities we deal with in agriculture, trade is a 
top-of-the-line issue.
  It is just an important part of the economy of most of our States, 
frankly. Because of our location, where we live, infrastructure is 
critical. We are also the hub for products that go all over North 
America. Integrating that infrastructure--water, rail, cars, and

[[Page S4932]]

trucks--makes a difference in how we compete.
  Canada and Mexico are our two biggest trading partners in, I am sure, 
our State and in the country. In recent months, Mexico has become the 
biggest trading partner we have. Canada is the next biggest trading 
partner we have. These are not inconsequential relationships.
  When the United States signed the North America Free Trade Agreement 
25 years ago, it did a lot to open those markets for our products and 
to not only strengthen our economy but to strengthen the neighborhood. 
Our exports of food and agricultural products to Canada and Mexico 
quadrupled under the NAFTA agreement. The treaty also helped to 
strengthen ties among our countries.
  You know, a strong Mexico is actually good for us. We have these 
problems at the border right now that Mexico is trying to help us 
solve. Almost nobody is coming from Mexico; they are coming through 
Mexico. And why aren't they coming from Mexico like they did 25 years 
ago? Because the Mexican economy is an economy that works for people 
who live there. A strong Canada is good for us. The daily trade over 
that Canadian-U.S. border--things passing back and forth--is incredible 
and has been for a long time, but it is also much stronger than it used 
to be. Keeping these connections strong is essential.
  Trade increases our economic security, but it also increases our 
national security. Living in a good neighborhood is what we all want to 
do, and that is the value we have seen out of this agreement for the 
last 25 years. The agreement could have been better, and the President 
has made it better. The USMCA is going to be better than NAFTA. No 
NAFTA would be a bad thing; NAFTA replaced by USMCA would be a good 
thing.
  It is time that we begin to build on what we have learned in those 25 
years and move into this century with a new agreement that works for 
farming families, for ranching families, for workers, for people who 
make automobiles, airplanes, and other things. This leads to more 
American jobs, and it leads to great benefit for us economically.
  But, again, let me repeat, the national security impact of having two 
neighbors that want to work with us. What we just saw the President 
negotiate with Mexico, where they are helping secure that much narrower 
border at the southern tip of Mexico more than we would be able to do 
at the much bigger northern border, that is helpful. Where they are 
working to help people stay there as their cases are being heard, that 
is helpful to our country. It is easier to keep people there and have 
their cases heard than let them disperse throughout the entire United 
States.
  Certainly, we hope to gain from the new USMCA treaty, but we hope our 
neighbors also benefit from that treaty and know they will. The three 
countries all signed this agreement in November. Mexico has ratified it 
already. The Prime Minister of Canada says they stand ready to call 
their Parliament back into session to ratify it. As soon as it is 
clear, they are going to.
  Trade is essential. All three of our countries agree on that. 
Democrats and Republicans agree on that. Members of the House and 
Senate agree on that. Now what we need to agree on is how to have a 
time to vote and approve this deal. Let's give our economy the boost it 
needs. Let's give our neighborhood the strength we have seen develop 
over the last 25 years.
  We hope our friends in the House bring this to the floor. It will be 
a bipartisan vote. It will be a comfortably passed vote. But you have 
to decide to have a vote for that to happen, and I hope we are close to 
that moment.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.