WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) spoke on the Senate floor calling on House Democrats to pass the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), replacing the 25-year-old North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). President Donald Trump signed the USMCA agreement one year ago with leaders from Mexico and Canada.

Watch Senator Tillis’ floor speech HERE.

“We’ve had so many opportunities to modernize our trade agreement with our two most important trade partners and the USMCA is the opportunity to do that,” said Senator Tillis. “While it only took a month to ratify the NAFTA agreement, knowing there would be a lot to be done before we would completely benefit from it, we’ve waited a year to ratify an agreement that will be immediately beneficial to the American economy. It will create more than 170,000 new jobs and $70 billion a year in additional economic activity.”

North Carolina is the ninth largest agricultural economy in the country, with nearly $90 billion a year in agriculture products. Since 2018, North Carolina has exported $10.4 billion to Canada and Mexico, with $6.6 billion to Canada and $3.8 billion to Mexico.

“We want those markets open in Canada and Mexico so we can grow our farm economy in North Carolina,” said Senator Tillis.

Earlier this fall, Tillis wrote an op-ed in the Salisbury Post calling on House Democrats to pass the USMCA.

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