WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., spoke from the Senate floor Wednesday urging passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which is a much-needed update to the Clinton-era North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Wicker highlighted the positive benefits of the trade agreement and the enhanced protections for multiple industries that it would provide.

“We send twice as many goods to countries where we have trade agreements as we do with countries where we don’t,” Wicker said. “This is an opportunity to expand on an already great success story.”

Wicker noted that the USMCA would benefit manufacturers, farmers, ranchers and agribusinesses of all sizes, including many small businesses, and would provide enhanced intellectual property protections for the technology and creative industries.

Wicker urged the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to take up the measure without delay.

“There is one person on the face of the earth … who can  bring this bill up and that’s the speaker of the House of Representatives,” Wicker said. “She needs to that, and if she does we’ll see a rare opportunity for bipartisanship in the U.S. Congress.”

The USMCA is expected to pass both the House and the Senate with bipartisan majorities.

“This is an opportunity for us to move this economy forward,” Wicker concluded.