The Trump Administration is continuing to push Congress to ratify the

The Trump Administration is continuing to push Congress to ratify the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement and environmental concerns are a significant hurdle for approval of the plan. 

AgDay’s Clinton Griffiths talked with EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler about the deal.  He asked him how well the agreement covers the environment. Wheeler replied, “It is great for environmental issues.  It’s actually the first time we’ve ever incorporated environmental language into the body of the trade agreement. Under NAFTA, the environmental issues were considered as a side agreement to NAFTA.  They were not actually part of the trade agreements, so this is the first time we’ve ever included them in the trade agreement itself, and it’s the first time we ever included language on the marine plastics and debris in a trade agreement.  First, it’s historic. We’ve done more on the environmental provisions in this trade agreement than any other trade agreement the United States has ever negotiated”.

Clinton also asked if Wheeler felt the plan goes far enough to address environmental issues and holding all of our trading partners accountable. Wheeler said, “It does and, you know, part of what we established under NAFTA, which will continue probably even stronger now under the USMCA, is our trilateral work with the Canadians and Mexicans.  In fact, I was just in Mexico last week, meeting with the environmental ministers from Mexico and Canada on a number of projects, including food waste, but a number of projects that we’re working on collaboratively and collectively between the three governments”.

To hear what Mr. Wheeler had to say about total renewable fuels levels for 2020, click on the video link.