Retailers ‘Encouraged’ With USMCA’s ‘Updated Provisions’ on Digital Trade, Says NRF

The National Retail Federation supported the Trump administration’s efforts to “modernize” the North American Free Trade Agreement “to reflect today’s business environment and support long-term U.S. economic growth,” and so it urges Congress to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on free trade, wrote Senior Vice President-Government Relations David French to House and Senate leaders Wednesday. Retailers are “encouraged by some of the new and updated provisions in USMCA relating to digital trade, cross-border data flows, and customs and trade facilitation,” said French. The internet has “changed the way everyone does business, along with ways that consumers purchase goods and interact with retailers,” he said. “As value chains have deepened, cross-border data flows have grown,” he said. “These modernized provisions will help ensure that the new agreement reflects today’s global economy.”