<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""><br class="">Contact: Chris Palmquist, 712-242-6090<br class=""><a href="mailto:cpalmquist@iatp.org" class="">cpalmquist@iatp.org</a><br class="">July 11, 2019<br class="">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br class=""><br class=""><b class="">NEARLY 60 FARM AND FOOD GROUPS URGE CONGRESS TO REJECT NEW USMCA<br class=""></b><br class="">The updated trade deal will lock in rules that have devastated family farms and expanded corporate control over agriculture and food in the United States, Canada and Mexico. <br class=""><br class="">WASHINGTON—The current version of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) must be rejected, as it ignores the fundamental shortcomings of its predecessor—the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—and will lock in trade rules that have devastated family farms and expanded corporate control in agriculture and food, according to 59 organizations. These groups, including family farm, ranching, local food, public health and sustainable agriculture organizations, <a href="https://www.iatp.org/documents/farm-and-food-groups-congress-reject-usmca" class="">delivered a letter to Congress</a> on Wednesday urging a reworked trade agreement to serve the interests of farmers, consumers and the environment in all three nations. <br class=""><br class="">Since NAFTA's implementation, nearly 250,000 small to medium scale farmers have been driven out of agriculture. According to the <a href="https://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub4889.pdf" class="">United States International Trade Commission's report</a> on the economic benefits of USMCA, agriculture will grow by just 1,700 jobs over the full period of its implementation.<br class=""><br class="">While family farmers are and will be crushed, global agribusiness is thriving. The USMCA serves as a deregulatory wishlist for business, enacting new obstacles toward the enacting of sensible rules on food safety, agricultural biotechnology, food labeling and pesticide usage. Within USMCA's framework, regulators must choose the option that least disrupts trade, rather than what protects farmers and workers, our water or our health. <br class=""><br class="">Like its predecessor, the New NAFTA largely benefits agribusiness companies that operate in the United States, Canada and Mexico at the expense of family farms, consumers and the environment. USMCA must be rejected and reworked to serve the interests of the people of all three nations.<br class=""><br class="">COMMENTS FROM SIGNATORIES:<br class=""><br class=""><b class="">Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food and Water Watch:</b> "Congress must not approve NAFTA 2.0. This new version of a damaging trade deal would weaken our food safety standards, undermine many U.S. farmers raising crops like tomatoes and strawberries and promote unsustainable GMO crops."<br class=""><br class=""><b class="">Jim Goodman, President, National Family Farm Coalition:</b> "Nearly a quarter of a million family farmers have gone out of business since the original NAFTA was signed in 1994. As agribusiness has consolidated, multinational corporations have increased their profit margins while farmers sink deeper into debt and rural communities have withered. The new USMCA promises to accelerate these trends. Congress should reject this proposal and instead insist on trade rules that will be fair to family farmers, workers, and consumers." <br class=""><br class=""><b class="">Karen Hansen-Kuhn, Director of Trade and Global Governance, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: </b>"Many of our organizations pushed for changes in USMCA, beginning with restoring Country of Origin Labeling for meat. But those proposals were ignored. The New NAFTA does nothing to address the changes family farmers have been demanding for decades, nothing to improve farm incomes, and nothing to lift prices. Instead, it locks in a corporate-friendly status quo that will only lead to more crises in the future."<br class=""><br class="">##################<br class=""><br class=""> <div class=""><div role="feature" class="container feature-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: acumin-pro, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; width: auto !important; max-width: 1260px !important;"><div class="region region-feature" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><section id="block-entityviewcontent" class="block clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div data-history-node-id="43993" class="field-primary-category-trade node--type-document has-field-teaser-image node--view-mode-banner title-not-empty ds-2col clearfix has-field-primary-category node" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="group-right" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field--label-hidden field--item field--name-node-title field--type-ds field" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; line-height: 1.125em; color: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; font-size: 48px;" class="">Farm and food groups to Congress: Reject the USMCA</h2></div></div></div></section></div></div><div role="main" class="container js-quickedit-main-content main-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 20px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: acumin-pro, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding: 0px !important; width: auto !important; max-width: 1260px !important;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: -15px; margin-left: -15px;"><div class="highlighted" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: both;"><div class="region region-highlighted" style="box-sizing: border-box;"></div></div><section class="col-sm-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; min-height: 1px; padding-right: 15px; padding-left: 15px; float: left; width: 1248px;"><a id="main-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(11, 77, 172);" class=""></a><div class="region region-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><section id="block-ridiculouslyresponsivesocialsharebuttons" class="block clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><h2 class="block-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; color: rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 5px; font-size: 16px; text-transform: uppercase;">SHARE THIS</h2><div class="rrssb rrssb-bs-default" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 14px; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"><ul class="rrssb-buttons" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.15em 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 1218px;"></ul></div></section><div data-history-node-id="43993" class="field-primary-category-trade node--type-document has-field-teaser-image ds-1col title-not-empty clearfix has-field-primary-category node--view-mode-full node" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 21px;"><div class="field--label-hidden field--name-node-post-date field--type-ds field--item field" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600; line-height: 1.2em;">Jul 11, 2019</div><div class="field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item field field--name-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">We write to you as representatives of US family farm, ranching, farmworker, local foods, public health, and sustainable agriculture organizations to urge you to reject the current version of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA). The new agreement does nothing to fix the fundamental shortcomings of the previous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while further locking in trade rules that have devastated family farms and expanded corporate control over agriculture and our food system in all three countries. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The situation confronting family farmers is dire. According to data from the 2017 U.S. Census of Agriculture, nearly 250,000 small to medium scale farmers have been driven out of agriculture since the original NAFTA began. The promised benefits of increased farm exports and profits under NAFTA have not trickled down to farmers, farmworkers or rural communities. Instead, a handful of well-financed multinational firms have captured these export markets through vertical integration and now control greater shares of agricultural inputs, seeds, and equipment, while there are fewer buyers of crops, meat and poultry. In the absence of effective federal anti-trust enforcement in the agriculture sector, the diminished competition forces farmers to accept whatever prices -- and conditions -- are dictated by agribusinesses. U.S. agribusiness exports have, in turn, economically undercut family farmers abroad and, coupled with this removal of land tenure rights compelled in the first NAFTA negotiations, driven millions of Mexican farmers from their lands, forcing many of them to become farmworkers in Mexico or the US under precarious and unfair conditions. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Even the administration’s own report on USMCA projects vanishingly small economic benefits. The International Trade Commission (ITC) forecasts that USMCA will generate just <em style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">1,700</em> new jobs in agriculture over the full period of its implementation. The ITC’s economic simulations of the impacts of agricultural market access changes in USMCA project an increase in US agriculture and food exports of $435 million and increases in imports of $80 million. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">When it comes to agriculture trade, however, farmers and rural communities can’t simply accept the conditions that this deal reinforces. In contrast to the mildly optimistic ITC projections, a new study by the University of Florida estimates that the failure to resolve problems confronting U.S. seasonal fruit and vegetable producers and the workers they depend upon could result in upwards of 8,000 jobs lost and a loss of $471.4 million in annual revenue to Florida’s overall economy if USMCA is ratified without changes.<a href="https://www.iatp.org/documents/farm-and-food-groups-congress-reject-usmca#_ftn1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(11, 77, 172); text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">The new USMCA takes a step back in other areas, reading like a deregulatory wish list for global agribusiness firms who operate in all three countries. It would create new obstacles to enact sensible rules on food safety, agricultural biotechnology, food labeling and pesticides. Rules on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards, Technical Barriers to Trade and Agriculture would direct regulators to choose the option that least distorts trade, rather than what best protects public health or the environment. A new chapter on Good Regulatory Practices would require regulators to submit new and existing rules to review by stakeholders from all countries. If approved, these new provisions would undoubtedly be extended to future negotiations with the EU, Japan and the UK. Taken together, these new rules create barriers to basic protections for farmers and workers, the land, our water and our health. </span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Many of our organizations made proposals to replace NAFTA with a better set of trade rules that would advance fair, healthy and sustainable food and farming systems. We called on the US government to press Canada and Mexico to withdraw their World Trade Organization complaints to Country of Origin Labeling for meat so that Congress could restore this popular program advancing market transparency and local food systems. Even this modest proposal was rejected.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">We urge you to reject the USMCA and instead insist on new trade rules that would serve the interests of family farmers, ranchers, indigenous communities, farm and food chain workers, consumers and our environment in all three nations.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Sincerely,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">ActionAid USA</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Agroecology Research-Action Collaborative</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Alabama State Association of Cooperatives - Forkland, Alabama </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, Inc.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">American Indian Mothers, North Carolina</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake Counties Farmers Union, Ohio </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Atrisco Land Grant, Atrisco, New Mexico</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Black Farmers and Agriculturalists Association, Tillery, North Carolina</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Black Farmers and Ranchers of New Mexico</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">California Institute for Rural Studies, Davis, California</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Community Alliance for Global Justice</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Community Farm Alliance</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Concerned Citizens of Tillery, North Carolina</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Cottage House, Inc. Ariton, Alabama</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Dakota Resource Council, North Dakota</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Dakota Rural Action, South Dakota</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Family Farm Defenders</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Farm Women United</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Food for Maine's Future</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Food & Water Watch</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Greene County Democrat, weekly newspaper - Eutaw, Alabama</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">GROW North Texas</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">iEat Green, New York</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Idaho Organization of Resource Councils</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Independent Cattlemen of Wyoming</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Kansas Black Farmers Association, Nicodemus, Kansas</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">La Mujer Obrera, El Paso, Texas</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Land Stewardship Project, Minnesota</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Local Environmental Agriculture Project, Inc., Virginia</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Main Street Cheese, LLC, New Hampshire</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Mississippi Association of Cooperatives, Jackson, Mississippi</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Missouri Rural Crisis Center</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">National Family Farm Coalition</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Association</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northern Plains Resource Council, Montana </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northeast Organic Farming Association - Interstate Council</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northeast Organic Farming Association, New Hampshire</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northeast Organic Farming Association, New York</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Northwest Forest Worker Center, Albany, California</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">PLANT (Partners for the Land & Agricultural Needs of Traditional Peoples)</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">PLBA Housing Development Corporation - Gainesville, Alabama</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Powder River Basin Resource Council, Wyoming</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Progressive Agriculture Organization</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Real Food Challenge</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Rural Advancement Fund of the National Sharecroppers Fund, Orangeburg, South Carolina</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Rural Coalition/Coalición Rural</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Rural Vermont</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Savage Acres LLC, Virginia</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Slow Food North Shore, New York</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Slow Food USA</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Union of Concerned Scientists </span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Western Colorado Alliance</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">World Farmers, Lancaster, Massachusetts</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">Western Organization of Resource Councils</span></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px;" class=""> <br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://www.iatp.org/documents/farm-and-food-groups-congress-reject-usmca#_ftnref1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(11, 77, 172); text-decoration: none;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class="">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a> Available at <span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" class=""><a href="https://fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/economic-impact-analysis/MexicoFruit&Vegetable.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(11, 77, 172); text-decoration: none;" class="">https://fred.ifas.ufl.edu/pdf/economic-impact-analysis/MexicoFruit&Vegetable.pdf</a></span></span></span></span></div></div></div></div></section></div></div><div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>
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