United States-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement

Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. I want to thank my colleague Senator Hoeven for organizing this very important event.

I think you sense a theme building here. Many of my colleagues have spoken about the economic benefits USMCA holds for their specific States, and I would like to add Arkansas to the list.

According to the Arkansas World Trade Center--which, by the way, does an excellent job promoting trade in my State and growing opportunities for our exporters--Canada and Mexico are Arkansas's top trading partners by far. Arkansas goods and services are exported to 181 countries, but Canada and Mexico combined for over one-third of our exports in 2017. Our exports to these two countries added $2.1 billion to Arkansas's economy that year. Nearly 69,000 jobs in my State are dependent on trade with Canada, and another 41,000 jobs are affected by trade with Mexico. Arkansas exports about $1.3 billion in goods to Canada and another $182 million in services. I could go on, but we have already covered a lot of statistics here today.

It is important to remember that there are real people behind this data. They are the workers in the paper mills in South Arkansas, the employees of the steel mills in Northwest Arkansas, the family farmers producing rice in the delta, and the line workers at the poultry- processing plants in Northwest Arkansas.

These Arkansans, and many more, work in the industries that produce our top exports to Mexico and Canada. For them and countless others, the announcement that a trade agreement has been reached with Canada and Mexico was very welcome and promising news. Arkansas farmers, business leaders, and workers understand how vital it is to have free but also fair trade, particularly with our neighbors to the north and the south. It helps create the sense of certainty that has been sorely missing for our manufacturers, small businesses, and the agriculture industry.

For our agricultural community, it is particularly crucial that we push this agreement across the finish line. Our farmers face a very tenuous situation right now. Commodity prices are well below the cost of production. Farm incomes in 2018 dropped sharply again for the fifth consecutive year. Total farm debt has risen to levels not seen since the early 1980s. A rainy fall and spring have hampered planting season and, in the case of Arkansas, produced one of the worst floods in the State's history. All this combined has placed Arkansas's rural communities in dire conditions. Far too many family farms are barely hanging on, and, sadly, many more are filing for bankruptcy.

Arkansas has a diverse economy, ranging from aerospace and defense to steel production, to the world's largest retailer, but agriculture is by far our largest industry. It adds around $16 billion to our economy every year and accounts for approximately one in every six jobs in Arkansas.

In my discussions with farmers on how we can help, the same mantra is often repeated: They prefer trade over aid. While they appreciate the President's efforts to ease the pain during these trade standoffs, what they really need are more markets in which to sell their products. They understand that increased trade is the way forward to create a better long-term outlook for their operations.

Our neighbors to the north and south are our natural allies and trading partners. The President's team worked hard to get Canada and Mexico to the negotiating table to formalize a more mutually beneficial agreement. That hard work has paid off in the form of the USMCA. Now Congress has the responsibility to see it through to the end.

Fair trade agreements have become increasingly important to Arkansas's economy over the last half-century. As the world becomes more interconnected, access to global markets is necessary not just for the large corporations that call Arkansas home but also for small and medium-sized businesses that are looking to expand their operations and their footprints. With a level playing field, Arkansas's agriculture, manufacturing, and small businesses can compete with anyone around the globe. Let's help them take a giant step closer to that by swiftly approving USMCA.

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