Mounting push in U.S. Congress to bring Latin American countries under USMCA umbrella

A bipartisan duo of U.S. senators is leading a growing push to open up the continent’s “gold standard” trade agreement to include parts of Latin America in order to build a better bulwark against China’s geopolitical might.

The event marked the launch Thursday of a new Council of the Americas report on the idea of “accession” to the USMCA, known in Canada as CUSMA, as a tool to reinforce economic strength across the entire Western Hemisphere. Juan Carlos Baker, the report’s co-author and one of Mexico’s lead negotiators during the NAFTA talks that spawned the new agreement in 2018, called the deal a resounding success for all three countries.

“There is no consensus in the U.S. government on this issue. I would not even qualify this discussion as having hit Main Street, despite Sen. Cassidy’s efforts,” Blais said. “In its current form, the agreement contains no mechanisms to allow other countries to join in,” said spokesperson Genevieve Tremblay.

That latter country has already reaped the benefits of an existing Central American trade agreement with the U.S., but has long since outgrown it, said Manuel Tovar Rivera, Costa Rica’s minister of foreign trade.

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In Congress, a mounting push to bring Latin American countries under USMCA umbrellaWASHINGTON — Two members of Congress want to invite Latin American countries to join Canada's trade agreement with the United States and Mexico. Louisiana Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy and Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat from Colorado, say they want to create a Western Hemisphere trading bloc to combat China. They say expanding the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to include Latin American countries would be a win-win for the Americas. Their proposed Americas Trade and Investment Act is designed to l
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