WASHINGTON - American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Donna Harman issued the following statement regarding the signing of the trilateral trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada:

"AF&PA welcomes the signing of the trilateral trade agreement as a step in the right direction toward strengthening access for our industry's products in the North American market. We are one the largest manufacturing sectors in the U.S. with exports to Canada and Mexico of $9.6 billion (45 percent of global exports), supporting 52,000 direct and many more indirect American jobs. We look forward to working with Congress to ensure the agreement preserves and improves the market access and investor protections such as investor state dispute settlement procedures that have long benefitted our industry and its workers."