United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, over the weekend, we marked 1 year since the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the U.S.- Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. This modern trade agreement will replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which has been the guiding force for North American trade for the past quarter of a century.

When NAFTA was created, its goal was to remove barriers that impede free and fair trade and provide economic benefits to all three countries. By any measure, NAFTA has been an overwhelming success, but a lot has changed in 25 years since NAFTA went into effect, and it is time to bring North American trade into the 21st century. That is precisely what the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement, USMCA, will do. It preserves the hallmark provisions of NAFTA, like duty-free access to Mexican and Canadian markets, and adds measures to modernize the agreement. The USMCA provides strong protections for intellectual property, which is critical to protecting the incredible innovation that Americans do right here at home. It also cuts redtape that is preventing countless small businesses from tapping into foreign markets, and it accounts for e-commerce and digital products, something unheard of 25 years ago, at a time when governments around the world are proposing all kinds of new taxes on e-commerce.

It is actually the first free-trade agreement with a digital trade chapter. That is why a lot of folks call this NAFTA 2.0. It is better. It is stronger. It modernizes the original NAFTA.

We have been told by the experts that the USMCA will lead to increased wealth and jobs here in the United States--about 176,000 new jobs. That is on top of the 13 million jobs currently supported by trade between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

It is expected to have a positive impact on every industry sector of the U.S. economy and a more than $33 billion increase in our exports-- things we grow, like wild Maine blueberries, and sell overseas, things we make and manufacture.

This isn't just a win for our farmers, manufacturers, and consumers; it is a win for our entire country. Coincidentally, it is also a big win for Texas. Our State has the 10th largest economy in the world, and it is the engine behind much of our country's trade. In 2018, we exported more than $137 billion in goods and services to Canada and Mexico. With the passage of the USMCA, that number will go up.

I think the only question left is, When will we get a chance to vote on it? Mexico approved the deal in June. Canada is moving toward ratification soon, so the only remaining hurdle is the green light from Speaker Pelosi and the House of Representatives. We heard early on that House Democrats had some concerns with the agreement, but we were told by the administration--Ambassador Lighthizer, for example--that he thought the negotiations with the House were going well and were being done in good faith. Mexico has made commitments related to some of the labor provisions that were a concern to our Democratic colleagues. President Lopez Obrador even wrote a letter to the Speaker last week affirming that they will fulfill the promises they made. Speaker Pelosi has said repeatedly over the last year that progress was being made and that we are close to a deal and that she hopes we will vote soon. We have heard that over and over and over but still no vote.

Here we are. More than 365 days have gone by since this agreement was signed, and the House still hasn't had a vote. Rather than working to iron out the final details so we can get the USMCA moving before Christmas, the Speaker kicked off the week in Spain talking about the Paris accord and climate change. Unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues seem to want to talk about anything and everything other than the priorities we should have in the Congress. Whether they want to be absorbed by impeachment mania or they want to talk about climate change in London, in Paris, they want to talk about anything other than the work that is right here in front of us that we need to get done: things like the USMCA, things like lowering drug prices for consumers, things like an infrastructure bill and improving our highways and bridges, reducing traffic--which we all hate on a bipartisan basis-- addressing some of the root causes of the mass violence incidents, including mental health challenges that many people face who are a danger to themselves and others, and things like how can we get people who should be conducting background checks on firearm purchases--making sure that the laws on the books are being enforced. Those are all things we can and should be doing.

Apparently, that is not the priority for the Speaker. For an entire year now, House Democrats have kept American farmers, businesses, workers, and consumers waiting. With each day that goes by, while the USMCA waits in purgatory, the American people are missing out. We know that the longer this goes on, the closer this gets into the active election season of 2020, the less likely it is that we are actually going to have the bandwidth to get it done. I don't understand why our Democratic colleagues are putting new American jobs on hold. Are they saying we don't need this increased wealth that this trade agreement will bring? Is that really their argument? Are they telling the American businesses that they really don't care about leveling the playing field? Is that the message we are supposed to get from this lack of activity, this inaction?

With House Democrats working overtime in the futile effort to remove the President from office and undo an election, they are squandering what may be our biggest opportunity this Congress. Unfortunately, partisanship has broken out and obstructed bipartisan desire to get our work done, including the USMCA.

I mentioned some of the other things we could and should be doing. A few weeks ago, the minority leader, the Democratic leader, singlehandedly blocked a bipartisan bill that the Senator from Connecticut, Senator Blumenthal, and I introduced that would bring down prescription drug prices. This bill passed--sailed through--the Senate Judiciary Committee on a bipartisan, unanimous vote. Yet, when we brought it to the floor, our Democratic colleague the minority leader, who called this a good bill and well-intentioned, objected to its passage.

Then there is the appropriations process that had been thrown into chaos. In August, we had an agreement on spending caps for the next 2 years. We thought we had overcome the biggest hurdle to getting our work done in order to make sure our military was funded and to make sure that we were meeting the other financial obligations that the Federal Government has to meet, but our Democratic colleagues walked back on the commitment they had made in August over a 0.3-percent disagreement on Federal spending. That is right--0.3-percent of what the Federal Government spends. That is what caused them to backtrack on their agreement. They have now kept our military waiting for the funding and the stability it needs to keep our Nation safe.

They have also defeated, at least temporarily, a bipartisan--nearly unanimous--prescription drug bill that would bring down prescription drug costs, and it is hard for me to understand why.

I would like to be able to head home for the Christmas holidays with some good news--good news for the Texans who are eager to see the USMCA ratified. Generally speaking, I am a ``glass half full'' kind of guy, not a ``glass half empty,'' but I am losing confidence that we will see progress on the USMCA before Christmas. The longer this goes on, the less likely we will actually find the opportunity to get it done.

It seems to me that impeachment mania has consumed this Congress and rendered our colleagues on the other side incapable of focusing on anything other than removing President Trump from office. Time is running out, and I hope the USMCA doesn't become the latest casualty to land in Senator Schumer's legislative graveyard.

At some point, we have to put politics aside and do what we were sent here to do, which is to make progress that will benefit the American people. Let's hope we can do that during this holiday season before it is over.

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