Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague Senator Hoeven for organizing this very important event. I think you sense a theme building here. Many of my colleagues have spoken about the economic benefits USMCA holds for their specific States, and I would like to add Arkansas to the list. According to the Arkansas World Trade Center--which, by the way, does an excellent job promoting trade in my State and growing opportunities for our exporters--Canada and Mexico are Arkansas's top trading partners by far. Arkansas goods and services are exported to 181 countries, but Canada and Mexico combined for over one-third of our exports in 2017. Our exports to these two countries added $2.1 billion to Arkansas's economy that year. Nearly 69,000 jobs in my State are dependent on trade with Canada, and another 41,000 jobs are affected by trade with Mexico. Arkansas exports about $1.3 billion in goods to Canada and another $182 million in services. I could go on, but we have already covered a lot of statistics here today. It is important to remember that there are real people behind this data. They are the workers in the paper mills in South Arkansas, the employees of the steel mills in Northwest Arkansas, the family farmers producing rice in the delta, and the line workers at the poultry- processing plants in Northwest Arkansas. These Arkansans, and many more, work in the industries that produce our top exports to Mexico and Canada.…”