Washington – Business Roundtable today released the following statement from Joshua Bolten, President & CEO of Business Roundtable:
“Representing CEO members who lead companies with more than 15 million employees, Business Roundtable urges Congress to pass legislation to implement the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as soon as possible. Over 12 million American jobs depend on the $1.4 trillion in trade with Canada and Mexico. Passing USMCA will modernize a 25-year old agreement with our neighbors and preserve and strengthen North American trade and investment.
“USMCA includes many gold-standard provisions, further opens markets and sets new standards that can benefit workers, businesses and farmers across broad industry sectors – including new rules supporting the digital economy and trade, promoting the free flow of data for all sectors, enhancing trade facilitation and e-commerce and supporting small businesses by cutting red tape. Building off the current foundation of duty-free trilateral trade and integrated supply chains across North America, USMCA, once in effect, will increase U.S. jobs, exports and economic growth.
“No trade agreement is perfect, and we do not support all the individual provisions in USMCA. Business Roundtable strongly supports strengthening intellectual property protections in trade agreements for all sectors. We are very disappointed that the deal announced yesterday removes or weakens important intellectual property protections and could undermine lifesaving innovations and technologies. Weakening intellectual property protections should not be a template for future trade agreements.
“We greatly appreciate the Administration and members of Congress working together on USMCA. Business Roundtable urges swift passage of USMCA implementing legislation because the agreement in its totality preserves and strengthens North American trade and investment. We will work with Congress and the Administration to get this done.”