Congressman Panetta Votes for the USMCA Trade Agreement

WASHINGTON, DC – On Thursday, December 19, Congressman Jimmy Panetta (CA-20) voted for the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) implementing legislation, which included improvements negotiated by the Democratic Majority of the United States House of Representatives.



"Our agriculture on the central coast of California relies heavily on our leading trade partners Canada and Mexico. The USMCA will provide our farmers and ranchers with improved and continued access to those critical export markets and give them the certainty that they deserve.



"The agreement provides relief from non-tariff barriers by requiring agriculture food safety measures to be based on sound science, and increases transparency for biotechnology standards transparency.   Moreover, the USMCA increases market access for dairy, poultry, and eggs, and ends discrimination of California wine in Canadian stores.



"When the administration first presented the USMCA to Congress earlier this year, we found it unacceptable due to the lack of serious labor and environmental standards and functioning enforcement mechanisms, as well as pharmaceuticals provisions that threatened to keep prescription drug prices high for consumers.  However, the Democratic Majority in Congress pushed back on the Administration and worked diligently with our U.S. Trade Representative, Ambassador Robert Lighthizer, to greatly improve this deal.



"Now, the USMCA has the strongest and most progressive labor and environmental standards of any U.S. trade agreement. Furthermore, the deal provides for mechanisms and funding to enforce such standards and support environmental cleanup efforts.  The agreement also no longer contains the provisions that prevented Congress from addressing the cost of prescription drugs.  Finally, the USMCA includes digital trade measures that will help internet startups and small e-commerce businesses on the Central Coast, reflecting the rise of the digital economy that did not exist when NAFTA was signed.



"I am proud of the work that we did in Congress to improve this deal, protect workers and the environment, bolster our economy, and provide a new benchmark for trade agreements in the future."



The USMCA Democrats negotiated makes several improvements over NAFTA and the 2018 USMCA:

Enforcement: Fixes loopholes in NAFTA, which were continued in the 2018 USMCA, that allowed countries to avoid being held accountable, and introduces new rules of evidence to aid our enforcement efforts.
Workers: Strengthens standards and makes them enforceable; creates new mechanisms to monitor labor rule compliance in Mexico and to enforce the commitment that parties trade only in goods that comply with the agreement’s rules on workers; and establishes a new enforcement mechanism that will lead to penalties on imports produced at a facility where workers’ right to organize has been thwarted.
Environment: Ensures that USMCA recognizes environmental violations connection to trade and establishes environment-focused attachés in Mexico City that will regularly monitor environmental rule compliance in Mexico. Provides new funding to for environmental infrastructure and cleanup, specifically at the California-Mexico border.
Access to Medicines: Preserves Congress’s ability to legislate to bring down prescription drug prices by removing big giveaways to pharmaceutical companies and changing the rules to promote fair competition and patients’ access to affordable medicines.


In October of 2019, Congressman Panetta, a member of the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, traveled with a Congressional Delegation to Mexico to meet with government officials and local workers regarding important improvements to the agreement.