This week House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives reached an agreement with the administration to proceed with a modified version of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).  The modifications relate to additional protective measures for labor and the environment, among others.   Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate must now pass legislation to implement the agreement, which the president must sign. The USMCA must also be approved by Canada and Mexico.

What this Means for Employers

From an immigration perspective, the USMCA represents a repackaging of NAFTA. The agreement retains key immigration benefits of NAFTA, including provisions allowing for the temporary entry without quotas of Business Visitors, Traders and Investors, Intracompany Transferees, and Professionals. With respect to Professional workers, USMCA retains all of the occupations previously designated as eligible for the NAFTA “TN” visa though the new agreement does not add any additional occupations.