House Agriculture Committee Chairman K. Michael Conaway (TX-11) offered the following statement after President Trump announced that the United States, Canada and Mexico have reached an agreement on the renegotiated NAFTA, now formally known as the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA):

“President Trump promised to deliver a modernized NAFTA agreement that was better for America’s farmers, ranchers, businesses and workers – and I’m hopeful this newly announced agreement will do just that. The initial prospects released by the administration are encouraging. Between eliminating Canada’s ‘Class 6 and 7’ dairy pricing policies and removing Canada’s discriminatory grain grading standards, many of the key requests from production agriculture seem to have been addressed. My staff and I continue reviewing the details, but I look forward to working with President Trump and his team to ensure that a strong, modern agreement among our three nations can be finalized as quickly as possible.”

Last week, Chairman Conaway and the House Agriculture Committee held a roundtable with USTR Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Gregg Doud, and USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Ted McKinney, to discuss the administration’s trade agenda, including progress on NAFTA. This meeting was one of several with the administration over the past two years in which the committee engaged officials on NAFTA progress. In May 2017, the committee hosted a roundtable with Sec. Perdue and Amb. Lighthizer on trade and followed up on the progress with a hearing in July on NAFTA renegotiation. In October 2017, a committee delegation traveled to Ottawa, Canada, to press negotiators on some of the sticking points between the U.S. and Canada. The committee also held a NAFTA roundtable with industry in November 2017.

Source: House Committee on Agriculture