Almost all of Washington seems to have an opinion about the new trade deal the Trump Administration struck with Canada and Mexico to replace the 24-year old NAFTA agreement, but so far very little has been focused on the tremendous benefits this new pact providers for American innovators, such as inventors, scientists, and artists, who are responsible for sustaining millions of jobs and tens of billions of dollars to our economy.

NAFTA was created in an era before the widespread deployment of the internet and today’s digital economy, and did not anticipate how digital innovation would fare in multilateral trade. It further didn’t anticipate many of today’s cutting-edge biological, medical and agricultural technologies, which at the time were either non-existent or just getting off the ground. This left a major vacuum in not just in how these technologies were traded on the world market, but even more importantly, how these ideas and innovations were protected from piracy and intellectual theft.

For example, few are aware that each innovative drug treatment or procedure that enters the market requires on average $2.6 billion in costs to create and test, and can take up to 15 years to reach consumers. Without strong agreements and enforcement of U.S. intellectual property rights, investment is at risk, leaving us all worse off.

The new trade deal, called the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) addresses these critical shortcomings by providing modern and thorough provisions to secure a wide array of U.S. intellectual property and trade secrets, a key highlight being its strong protections of medical innovation which offers the promise of new cures and better treatments for all.

Under USCMA, biologics, medicines created through living cells, would receive a full 10 year protection for both the intellectual property involved in creating each drug, as well as the data pertaining to the research, testing and clinical studies necessary to win approval and reach U.S. consumers. It promotes fairness by protecting the work and investment of American innovators, and facilitates continued investment in new research that will lead to more cures and better health for patients. All who care about medical progress, healthier lives and longevity (which should be  just about everyone), should cheer this development which provides the foundation for more and better healthcare cures.

The new agreement further strengthens intellectual property rights for the creators of works of art and software, and for the inventors of new patents. As the world increasingly moves toward a model of commerce  where digital and intellectual capital moves seamlessly across borders, 21st century protections for American innovators, artists and scientists was desperately needed. Innovation today is a primary driver of our economy, keeps America as world leader of innovation and new ideas, and supports millions of jobs. Without vigorous protections in place to defend America’s best and brightest from having their ideas and work taken from them, we could quickly lose our creative edge, ending up poorer both financially and intellectually.

With healthcare on track to continue growing as a share of America’s economy, strong laws and enforcement of intellectual property rights as spelled out in the USMCA will help ensure that U.S. consumers and patients can continue to count on American innovation leading the way. The agreement now heads to Congress for approval.