United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement

Floor Speech

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Mr. BAIRD. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from Kansas for allowing me to have the opportunity to speak on this important issue.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to lend my voice in support of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, better known as USMCA, which will expand markets for our farmers and manufacturers, while ensuring cheaper goods for Americans.

In Indiana, our economy thrives because we are one of the larger manufacturing States in the country, and an agricultural center for the Nation. We make the steel that towers above the Nation's largest cities in skyscrapers. We build the cars that drive along the Nation's highways and byways, and we grow the crops that feed the Nation's citizens and livestock.

We have built this economy, in part, through strong international relationships with countries as far away as Japan, and as close as Canada and Mexico. In fact, it is the partnerships with our closest neighbors to the north and south that are the strongest and most vital.

In 2018, Canada was the Hoosier State's most significant international export market, purchasing 34 percent of all of the exports, for a total of $13 billion in products. The 72 Canadian companies which operate in Indiana employ over 15,600 citizens of our State.

Mexico follows as our second biggest export market, purchasing 13.8 percent of our exports, injecting $5.5 billion into the Hoosier heartland. There are 2,000 manufacturing firms and 61,000 jobs in Indiana who rely on exports to these countries.

Beyond the strengthening of our export market, USMCA will also increase the percentage of cars that must be built in North America to 75 percent and require that 40 percent of the auto content be built by workers earning $16 an hour or more.

This is both a boon for manufacturers in the State and the Hoosier workers that are the lifeblood of our economy.

This legislation also opens up Canadian markets to our U.S. turkey and dairy products and ensures that our agricultural producers have access to Mexico's markets tariff-free.

Right now, due to the international trade conditions like the current delay in this deal, Hoosier manufacturers are seeing their growth stymied. The Hoosier farmers are hurting as corn, soy, and pork markets have taken major hits in the past few years. The longer we wait, the worse it gets.

Nearly every day I hear from constituents who are anxious to get this trade deal passed so that we can keep our economy in high gear. Our farmers and manufacturers in the Fourth District need this deal for both the certainty and the prosperity it will provide.

USMCA will further expand prosperity and ensure that the strong economic growth we have seen in the past 3 years continues.

Mr. Speaker, I will close with this: Allow us to vote.

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