Washington, DC – Congresswoman Brownley (D-Westlake Village) released the following statement on her vote to support the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) implementing legislation (H.R. 5430):
“North American trade is vital to Ventura County’s economy and our national economy. In fact, California’s 26th Congressional District exports over $1 billion worth of goods and services to Canada and Mexico and over 24,000 jobs in Ventura County depend on U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade, including many in the agricultural industry, which is a proud part of our local heritage and critical to our local and regional economy.
“Nationwide, more than 12 million American jobs — across the agriculture, manufacturing, services and technology sectors — depend on trade with Canada and Mexico. USMCA will not only protect these jobs, but update the old NAFTA to address e-commerce, which didn’t meaningfully exist when NAFTA was written.
“For months, House Democrats and I have fought to improve the USMCA, to better protect American jobs and the environment, and to strengthen our trade relationships with the United States’ most important trading partners. The renegotiated agreement is now something that will work for the American people.
“I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi, my colleagues on the USMCA working group, and our Senate colleagues for their efforts to improve the USMCA, including adding provisions to enhance enforcement of labor and environmental standards, which are an improvement over NAFTA and other previous proposals.
“That said, enforcement will not happen on its own and we must continue to be vigilant to ensure the new standards set by USMCA are fully enforced. The implementing legislation that we approved today in the House contains hundreds of millions in real funding to ensure enforcement of labor and environmental standards, including funds to stop pollution from Mexico from entering the U.S. via our waterways, which is a good first step.
“While we did not achieve all the environmental standards we had hoped for, we did successfully include language that will allow the Paris Climate agreement and other future international environmental agreements to be added by the parties at a later date. As a member of the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, I will continue to work to address this issue.”
Issues: 116th Congress, Agriculture