On Wednesday, July 1, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) went into effect, and Iowa leaders are calling this a historic new chapter for North American Trade. Gov. Kim Reynolds says this agreement is of benefit to Iowa families, farmers and small business owners and she is grateful to the administration for their commitment to get this agreement done. “Canada and Mexico are our two largest trading partners with $6.6 billion in exports in 2018 alone,” Reynolds says. “I look forward to USMCA opening new markets for high-quality Iowa exports, increasing wages, jobs and economic activity.” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig, says through this agreement, Iowa farmers will gain greater access to these two export markets. “Because of the Trump administration’s efforts to renegotiate unbalanced trade agreements, our producers will see significant improvements to rules of origin and intellectual property protections and new opportunities with expanded market access.” The USMCA replaces the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agriculture Service, Iowa exports more than $10.3 billion in agricultural products to Canada and Mexico each year, supporting 86,500 Iowa jobs.
