[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S214-S215]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              UNITED STATES-MEXICO-CANADA TRADE AGREEMENT

  Mr. GARDNER. Mr. President, over the last several years, Congress has 
had significant debates on trade--the

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importance of trade, what it means to our markets, what it means to 
exports, and what it means to States like mine, that being Colorado. 
The USMCA is incredibly important as we turn to that debate this week.
  NAFTA and what it meant to Colorado was incredibly significant and 
the number of jobs that it created as was the United States-Korea Free 
Trade Agreement and the number of jobs that its agreement created. We 
have seen the benefits of trade in a State like Colorado for a number 
of years, and we see the opportunity for additional trade agreements in 
the future. This past year and this past Congress, we adopted the Asia 
Reassurance Initiative Act, which created U.S.-Asia trade partnership 
opportunities in energy--renewable energy and traditional energy.
  This week, Congress turns its entire focus to the USMCA and its 
modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement. We have to 
continue looking for new trade opportunities--ways to open up trade 
around the globe. It is vitally important to agriculture, to our 
electronic sector, and to our service sector. People of all walks of 
life and business in Colorado understand the importance of trade and 
what it means to our industry. If we don't seek out new trade 
opportunities--it is not like we operate just by ourselves--we know 
what will happen. We will see China, India, and other countries 
displace us. We will see them build new supply chains and go around the 
United States, and we will end up losing those market opportunities, 
those investment opportunities, and the jobs that go along with them.
  If we don't open up new trade opportunities, farmers and ranchers in 
my home State will suffer. We have already seen incredibly low 
commodity prices hurt our agricultural communities. One way to overcome 
that is to open up new markets and create value-added opportunities in 
those new markets. That is how we can add one more potential tool to 
our ag economy to help make it survive and thrive. We have new product 
flows all the time out of our State, and this USMCA agreement is one 
more way we can create that new flow of opportunity. The North American 
Free Trade Agreement supports, really, 14 million jobs around the 
United States. Those are thousands of jobs in all 50 States.
  Despite its benefits, however, we can always do a better job of 
making sure it meets the needs of our modern-day economy by modernizing 
NAFTA. Modernizing NAFTA to increase market access, to expand energy 
exports, to maximize domestic energy production, including having 
provisions on intellectual property and e-commerce, will make this 
agreement even more beneficial to the United States. If you think back 
to 1994 and the timeframe of pre-iPhones and pre-iPads and of so much 
of the technology that we have today, this agreement was in place 
before that. That is why modernizing this agreement makes sense.
  As I mentioned, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is 
incredibly important to the State of Colorado. Out of 750,000 trade-
related jobs, there are nearly 220,000 jobs in Colorado--a great pro-
trade State--that are directly related to the USMCA. Canada and Mexico 
are our State's largest trading partners. Obviously, that makes sense, 
for right in the middle is our State. Amongst Colorado, Canada, and 
Mexico, we trade more than $2.7 billion worth of goods and support the 
220,000 jobs that I just talked about.
  Colorado's farmers produce nearly half of all of the potatoes that 
Mexico imports from the United States. We also supply about 97 percent 
of all U.S. beverages to Mexico. Mexico has certainly been able to tap 
the Rockies when it comes to our beverage production in Colorado. Our 
biggest export--beef--accounts for more than $880 million worth of 
goods that are shipped to Mexico and Canada.
  In 2018, Colorado exported to Mexico more than $45 million worth of 
milk, cream, cheese, and related dairy products. Meanwhile, we have 
exported about $2.2 million worth of those products to Canada. The 
USMCA will reform Canada's protectionist dairy policies and help 
American dairy farmers access the dairy markets in Canada so that we 
can increase our exports to Canada in cream, milk, cheese, and other 
dairy areas. We sent more than $31 million worth of cereals, like 
wheat, to Mexico in 2018 and more than $2 million worth to Canada.
  Even our sugar and candy manufacturers benefit from trade with Mexico 
and Canada. I just had a meeting with the Western Sugar Cooperative of 
Colorado. We talked about the importance of trade and about getting 
this trade agreement right. Both countries have received more than $14 
million a piece worth of Colorado's sugar and confectionery exports.
  Increased trade with these countries will also benefit the beverage 
industry in Colorado. As I mentioned, 97 percent of the beverages that 
Mexico imports are from Colorado, and we shipped more than $63 million 
worth of beverages to Canada in 2018. Beyond commodities like wheat, 
dairy, and sugar, Colorado's electronic manufacturers shipped to Canada 
more than $105 million worth of its goods in 2018, and Mexico received 
about $60 million worth of our electronic goods.
  The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement includes new digital 
provisions to account for our changing landscape of new technologies, 
advanced manufacturing products, and it tackles the issue of cross-
border dataflow, which is something that was just, basically, in its 
very infancy when NAFTA was enacted.
  We know that the USMCA is a better opportunity for us to gain even 
more jobs, more income, and more opportunity for the State of Colorado. 
We know that these trade agreements add to the household incomes across 
our State and that it benefits our economy. This agreement brings 
opportunity to all four corners of our State.
  New customs and trade rules will cut redtape and make it easier for 
Colorado's startups and entrepreneurs to sell their products into 
Canada and Mexico. U.S. agricultural and food exports are expected to 
rise more than $2 billion every year if the USMCA is adopted. So many 
goods in Colorado that are in our top 10 exported items are ag related. 
This $2 billion-a-year increase will mean there will be significant 
opportunities for Colorado's agriculture.
  Obviously, I am very encouraged by the Senate Committee on Finance in 
its reporting the agreement out favorably last week. I was honored to 
support the USMCA this morning by voting for the agreement--voting it 
out of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and out 
of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which are two of the 
committees on which I serve. I look forward to its expeditious passage 
here in the U.S. Senate.
  I live in rural Colorado. I am surrounded by wheat farms, corn farms, 
hog producers, feed lots, and I know how important trade is to our 
State. This agreement to modernize and continue our agreement with 
Canada and Mexico is critical to the survival of agriculture in 
Colorado and this country. I know, with new markets opening around the 
world, this agreement will continue to be the keystone of Colorado's 
trade. We stand to benefit tremendously, enormously from this update. 
Our farmers and ranchers are counting on us to get this done, and our 
manufacturers are counting on us to get this done. Our economy depends 
on our getting this done.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

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