WASHINGTON – Deputy United States Trade Representative Jayme White, Mexico’s Under Secretary of Foreign Trade, Luz María de la Mora, and Canada’s Deputy Minister for International Trade, David Morrison today opened the inaugural USMCA Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Dialogue in San Antonio, Texas. They were joined by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenburg and Dr. Lisa Montoya, Vice Provost of the University of Texas at San Antonio, as well as the Small Business Administration’s Associate Administrator for International Trade Gabriel Esparza and Karen Parker, Acting Director of the U.S. Commercial Service in Austin-San Antonio.
“Strengthening regional trade and investment with USMCA, enhancing cooperation on issues of mutual interest to SMEs, and helping more small businesses benefit from the USMCA, can foster economic growth and jobs in communities across North America," said Ambassador Jayme White. "It is great to be in San Antonio to meet with local leaders and small businesses trading with Canadian and Mexican partners.”
The SME Dialogue, established under the USMCA SME Chapter, is convened by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Small Business Administration, together with the Global Affairs Canada and Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service, and the Development Productive Unit and the Vice Ministry of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economy of Mexico. Hosted by the United States with SBA resource partner the University of Texas San Antonio Small Business Development Center (SBDC) International Trade Center, and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s U.S. Export Assistance Center in San Antonio, Texas, the Dialogue brought together hundreds of small business stakeholders including those representing underserved communities from the United States, Canada and Mexico in person and via live webinar in English, Spanish and French. Topics for discussion included USMCA small business trade resources for exporting and importing under USMCA; small businesses sharing best practices for trading across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico; and small business COVID-19 recovery resources.
In 2021, goods and services trade with USMCA totaled almost $1.2 trillion with the majority of traders from small businesses. Investments in each other’s economies totaled over $1 trillion, which includes small business supply-chains and communities. Mexico and Canada are the top two export destinations for U.S. SME goods. In 2019 (latest year available), over 87,000 SMEs exported $59.0 billion in goods to Canada, and over 52,000 U.S. SMEs exported over $82 billion in goods to Mexico.
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