Sponsors (5)
The bill aims to boost North American tourism and clarify cross-border coordination—potentially creating jobs, revenue, and smoother travel—while imposing modest taxpayer-funded administrative costs and risks of favoring larger industry players or straining local infrastructure.
Small businesses in tourism and travel and workers in hospitality/transportation gain more customers, higher revenue, and job opportunities from coordinated North American tourism promotion and export support, also helping preserve services export strength.
Travelers (and businesses that rely on visitation) could experience more efficient cross-border travel to Canada and Mexico through improved transportation coordination and simplified entry processes.
Importers, exporters, and other businesses gain clearer legal/geographic scope for rules tied to 'North America,' while agencies benefit from a consistent USMCA-based statutory reference that reduces regulatory uncertainty.
Coordination efforts and the Working Group could favor larger industry players, putting smaller tourism businesses at a competitive disadvantage if they lack comparable access or influence.
Taxpayers will fund administrative costs to create and staff the Working Group and for agencies to update guidance/forms, with no guaranteed economic returns.
Prioritizing tourism facilitation and trilateral coordination could divert policymaker attention or resources from other cross-border priorities and may constrain unilateral U.S. regulatory flexibility.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires USTR to advocate creation of a USMCA Travel and Tourism Trade Working Group and sets membership, duties, and reporting requirements.
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
Directs the U.S. Trade Representative to seek creation of a Travel and Tourism Trade Working Group under the USMCA at the first joint USMCA review after enactment. The working group would include U.S. agencies, be co‑chaired by each partner country, meet at least annually, solicit industry input, pursue policies to boost North American travel and tourism, and regularly brief specified congressional committees. The bill expresses the sense of Congress that travel and tourism are a major economic sector for the United States and that coordinated work with Canada and Mexico through USMCA can help increase exports, visitation, jobs, and competitiveness in the region.