MEXICO CITY – Deputy United States Trade Representative Jayme White, Mexico’s Under Secretary of Foreign Trade Alejandro Encinas, and Canada’s Deputy Minister for International Trade Rob Stewart today opened the second USMCA Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Dialogue, in Mexico City. They were joined by the Small Business Administration’s Acting Associate Administrator for International Trade, Claire Ehmann, and small business representatives from the United States, Mexico and Canada.
“While the rules of the USMCA set the framework for our economic relationship, our workers and businesses, especially small and medium-sized companies, are the drivers of our shared prosperity. Expanding the number of small business exporters in our countries and ensuring that they benefit from the USMCA by selling their goods and services to our closest neighbors in North America, is key,” said Ambassador Jayme White. “I am especially excited that a focus of this year’s SME Dialogue is on the experiences of women-owned small businesses in North American trade.”
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; 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. The United States hosted the first SME Dialogue in 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. Discussion at this year’s SME Dialogue included the experiences of women-owned businesses in North American trade; digitalization of SMEs and e-commerce; SME financial inclusion in export financing; and processes and procedures for exporting within the USMCA region.
In 2022, U.S. goods and services trade with the USMCA Parties totaled almost $1.8 trillion with the majority of traders from small businesses. Investments in each other’s economies totaled nearly $1.2 trillion in 2022, which includes small business supply-chains and communities. Mexico and Canada are the top two export destinations for U.S. SME goods. In 2021 (latest year available), over 64,000 U.S. SMEs exported over $53.0 billion in goods to Canada, and over 33,000 U.S. SMEs exported over $65 billion in goods to Mexico.
A Spanish translation of this statement can be found here.
Ambassador White’s opening remarks as prepared for delivery are available here, with a Spanish translation available here.
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