Office of the Press Secretary FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 8, 2020 Joint Declaration Between the United States and Mexico   With great appreciation, the United States and Mexico recognize the advancements our two countries have achieved toward a renewed and strengthened partnership equipped to the twenty-first century economic and security challenges of our North American region.  Our meeting commemorates the entry into force of the historic United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), a free trade agreement that will strengthen our global competitiveness as a region and promote economic growth, jobs, and prosperity for the American and Mexican people. The pandemic created by the COVID-19 virus has deeply affected the American and Mexican people.  The United States and Mexico continue to coordinate closely as we respond to unprecedented health, security, and economic challenges.  Our countries have restricted, since March 2020, movement at our shared land border to essential travel only, while ensuring the flow of critical goods and services, the continuity of our supply chains, and the movement of emergency and critical workers to mitigate the spread of the virus in our nations.   Mexico became the largest goods trading partner of the United States for the first time in 2019. Every day, $1.6 billion worth of trade crosses our border, directly supporting American and Mexican businesses, jobs, and workers.  The USMCA is the ideal instrument to provide economic certainty and increased confidence to our countries, which will be critical to the recovery that has begun in both of our nations.  The USMCA reaffirms our shared understanding that North America is a region that generates prosperity for all of its citizens and it strengthens our cooperation in fighting corruption through the strongest disciplines on corruption in international trade of any international agreement.  The USMCA marks the beginning of a new era that will benefit the workers, farmers, engineers, and entrepreneurs of both countries, who serve as the backbone of our integrated economies.  The USMCA will allow our successful economic partnership—one of the strongest in the world—to expand even more over the coming years in a continuation of our great history of shared cooperation. Signed at Washington on July 8, 2020, in duplicate, in the English and Spanish languages.   Donald J. Trump                                                                    President of the United States of America Andrés Manuel López Obrador President of the United Mexican States