Syracuse-area small businesses could have an easier time trading with Canada and Mexico thanks to new protections under the trade agreement awaiting the President’s signature. The US Small Business administration says The United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal, or USMCA, includes the first-ever dedicated small and medium business enterprise chapter. SBA Regional Administrator Steve Bulger says that means reduced costs and barriers that currently make it difficult to export products cross the borders.
"If you're a small business, you usually don't have an export manager, like a lot of the bigger companies do, that know how to navigate the red tape you'd encounter when shipping products to other countries. What this agreement does is reduce the amount of red tape to make it easier for small businesses to export to Canada and Mexico."
Bulger says this is good news for Central New York, where the majority of jobs are in small business.
"If it's easier for them to trade into Canada or Mexico and get their products and services without having to go through the restrictions and tariffs, in the digital age, that really opens up new markets to them. Canadians go on the internet, and say, 'here's a company in the Syracuse area that does exactly what I need. We want to make sure we have the best product, so we're going to deal with them.'"
Bulger says this should spur export growth and create jobs, especially in technical services and e-commerce businesses. Even some farms stand to benefit under the updated agreement.
"A lot of the milk and dairy product restrictions from Canada absolutely had a negative impact on our small dairy farms in Upstate New York. There is a provision in the new agreement that will address that and allow our farmers to export more dairy products to Canada."
In all, the USMCA could create up to a half million new jobs and $200 billion in growth across the country over the next five years. Mexico has already ratified the agreement; Canada’s approval is needed for it to take effect.
