Washington, D.C. December 10, 2019.  The American Soybean Association (ASA) is pleased that United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have announced agreement on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

“We are very happy to hear a bipartisan compromise has been achieved, and we now encourage our Congressional leaders to swiftly ratify this agreement by bringing it to vote,” said Davie Stephens, soy grower from Clinton, KY, and ASA president. “This deal is a positive for U.S. soybean farmers,” he concluded.

Mexico is the #2 market for whole beans, meal and oil, and Canada is the #4 buyer of meal and #7 buyer of oil for U.S. soybean farmers, making the trade agreement essential to sustaining the growth realized in those two countries under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Under NAFTA, U.S. soybean sales to Mexico quadrupled and to Canada doubled.

ASA and other agriculture groups have for months advocated on the Hill and online for #USMCAnow to encourage Congress to ratify USMCA by year end.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) represents U.S. soybean farmers on domestic and international policy issues important to the soybean industry. ASA has 26 affiliated state associations representing 30 soybean producing states and more than 300,000 soybean farmers. More information at https://soygrowers.com/.

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