Sponsors (4)
The bill trades modest federal administrative costs and some regulatory/competitive risks for clearer legal alignment with USMCA and potential economic gains—more visitors, jobs, and simpler cross‑border travel—for North American tourism stakeholders.
Small businesses and workers in the travel and tourism sector (including transportation and hospitality workers) gain increased customers, revenue, and job opportunities from coordinated U.S.–Canada–Mexico tourism promotion, and have a formal trilateral forum to raise concerns and pursue export opportunities.
Travelers and border communities could experience simpler, more efficient cross-border travel and entry processes due to improved trilateral coordination of transportation and travel policies.
Stronger North American tourism coordination helps preserve and strengthen the U.S. services export sector (supporting the trade balance and competitiveness of border communities).
Creating and staffing a USMCA working group and changing statutory wording will impose administrative costs and modest compliance/updating burdens on federal agencies and taxpayers.
Coordinated initiatives and a trilateral forum risk favoring larger industry players with greater access, disadvantaging smaller competitors that lack lobbying resources.
Prioritizing tourism facilitation could divert policymakers' attention or resources from other cross-border priorities (e.g., immigration enforcement, labor standards).
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires the USTR to seek creation of a USMCA Travel and Tourism Trade Working Group to coordinate policies that boost North American travel, exports, and jobs.
Official title: To direct the United States Trade Representative to prioritize the formation of a working group on travel and tourism during the next joint review conducted under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 9, 2026 by Alice Costandina Titus · Last progress February 9, 2026
Requires the U.S. Trade Representative to seek creation of a USMCA Travel and Tourism Trade Working Group during the next USMCA joint review, to coordinate U.S., Canadian, and Mexican policies that boost travel, tourism exports, and related jobs. The Working Group would be co-chaired by the three countries, include multiple U.S. agencies, meet at least annually, solicit industry input, pursue policies to improve North American travel competitiveness, and regularly brief specified congressional committees.