Reps. Doggett & Castro Welcome Signing of NAFTA 2.0 in San Antonio
UNITED STATES CONGRESS
For Immediate Release
October 12, 2018
Reps. Doggett & Castro Welcome Signing of NAFTA 2.0 in San Antonio
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-San Antonio) and U.S. Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) sent a joint letter to Ambassador Robert Lighthizer welcoming a possible signing of NAFTA 2.0, formally known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) in San Antonio. The full text of this letter is below and attached:
The Honorable Robert Lighthizer
United States Trade Representative
600 17th Street NW
Washington, DC 20230
Dear Ambassador Lighthizer:
Congratulations on concluding a renewed NAFTA agreement renamed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). For over two decades, NAFTA has further integrated our nations' economies and cultures. We appreciate your efforts to ensure that the existing agreement remains in full force and effect until the new version is considered by Congress.
Since NAFTA was originally signed in San Antonio in 1993, we have recommended to you previously that our country symbolically demonstrate the importance of our long term relationship with our neighbors by signing this new agreement at the same location. San Antonio is an international city celebrating its Tricentennial this year. We have already transmitted to you the communications (attached again here) from San Antonio Mayor, Ron Nirenberg, and Bexar County Judge, Nelson Wolff, inviting and welcoming your participation.
San Antonio would be honored to host a signing of the new pact. It is our hope that you will consider affirming USMCA in the same place where the trade relationship was officially brought into existence. While the text of the USMCA is still subject to additional modification and the critical implementing language is not yet available for our final evaluation of the new agreement, we remain hopeful that it can be promptly considered on a bipartisan basis next year.
Lloyd Doggett Joaquin Castro