A deal reached in December between the Trump Administration and House Democrats to endorse the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement has received the thumbs up from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers.
“This is good news for equipment manufacturers, the 1.3 million men and women of our industry, and the entire U.S. economy,” AEM president Dennis Slater said in a statement after the Dec. 10 deal cleared the way for the trilateral agreement to go ahead.
“We’re another step closer to getting the USMCA ratified,” Slater added. “Getting this across the finish line will preserve duty-free market access to our most important trade partners, add more than $68 billion to the U.S. economy, and create 176,000 U.S. jobs.”
Slater praised House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, “and everyone involved in these negotiations.”
The updated deal, which still had to be ratified by the governments of the three countries as this went to press, includes provisions for attachés to monitor labor and environmental regulations and practices in Mexico. Among the new deal’s other features are elimination of protections for biologic drugs, and strengthening of country of origin provisions for parts used in automotive manufacturing.
Pelosi called the revised deal “infinitely better than what was initially proposed by the administration.” President Trump, meanwhile, tweeted that it is “the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA.”
The new deal will replace the two-decades old North American Free Trade Agreement, which the AEM said greatly benefited equipment manufacturers. Those manufacturers support 1.3 million U.S. jobs and 149,000 Canadian jobs, while adding $188 billion to the economies of the two countries, according to the AEM.
The association represents more than 1,000 companies, which include dozens of manufacturers of service trucks and related equipment.