Rep. O’Halleran ignoring AZ leaders’ pleas to support USMCA
Good morning!
Arizona Chamber of Commerce President Glenn Hamer yesterday called out Rep. O’Halleran in the Arizona Daily Star for refusing to support the USMCA.
O’Halleran continues to ignore Arizonans’ calls – including from Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema – to support the USMCA because O’Halleran is scared of Nancy Pelosi.
In case you missed it…
Local Opinion: The USMCA offers manufacturers certainty now, not later
Arizona Daily Star
Glenn Hamer
September 21, 2019
Arizona, with its educated workforce and growing population, is becoming an American hub for manufacturing. Major manufacturers like Raytheon, Intel, Honeywell, Karsten Manufacturing and others are at the forefront of innovation not just regionally — or even nationally — but globally. These companies are developing the future using the technology of the future. And they are creating a robust business climate that offers career-track, high-tech and well-paying jobs.
Across the state, more than 172,000 jobs are tied to the manufacturing industry and — thanks to 25 years of a stable, tariff-free trading relationship with Canada and Mexico — manufacturing output and exports from our state have grown exponentially. Collectively, Canada and Mexico purchase more from the United States than our next 11 trading partners combined and trade with these counties supports 12 million American jobs. In Arizona alone, these nations purchase $19 billion worth of Arizona’s manufactured goods, which is more than two-fifths of our total global manufacturing exports.
To build on the incredible growth of Arizona’s economy, it is imperative that we strengthen our trading relationship with our North American neighbors and protect our nation’s manufacturing industry. To do so, Congress must ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Arizonans are counting on our elected officials to stand with manufacturers and businesses and support the USMCA. Already, Gov. Doug Ducey and Rep. Greg Stanton have distinguished themselves as leading voices in favor of getting this deal done. Ducey, in fact, launched usmcanow.org, a website devoted to garnering support for the USMCA.
Our state’s businesses are counting on Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, Tom O’Halleran, Raúl Grijalva, Paul Gosar and Ruben Gallego to follow the examples set by the governor and Stanton and show a unified, bipartisan front in favor of the USMCA. NAFTA passed with a unanimous vote from the Arizona congressional delegation. We expect the same for USMCA.
Manufacturing is one of the largest sectors in the state, driving our economy forward and making it more globally competitive. Promoting the industry’s global competitiveness and future-readiness should be among our lawmakers’ top priorities.
New provisions in the USMCA go beyond past trade agreements to safeguard our innovations with much-needed intellectual property updates. These enforcements mean stronger protections for American creations in foreign markets. It also allows Arizona-made businesses to create and export next-generation proprietary software to cutting-edge technologies knowing their intellectual property is safe from theft, which ends in more productivity, larger investments and better innovations.
The USMCA also creates a new, best-in-class digital chapter to reflect the 21st-century economy, which relies heavily on the internet. This provision of the agreement would allow data to move freely between partnering countries and protect proprietary source code and online storefronts. It would also crack down on anti-competitive behavior and remove unfair trade barriers, helping small businesses in particular in their efforts to reach foreign markets. These new regulations would give businesses certainty and allow them to focus resources on innovation and new sales, rather than wading through vague or trade-distorting data regulation.
If we do not move forward with the USMCA in order to promote a rules-based, tariff-free trading relationship with Canada and Mexico, Arizona’s economy will suffer. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, without stable North American trade, Arizona could face up to $2.1 billion in extra taxes compared to zero today. And immediate action to strengthen the world’s largest trading bloc is all the more important given the trade turbulence between the US and the world’s second largest economy, China.
In June, Mexico ratified its end of the agreement and Canada is on track to do so as well. Our Congress must do the same. Now.