YORK — Vice President Mike Pence dropped in Thursday on the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, where he toured a maker of packaging robots and urged Congress to pass a new trade pact with Canada and Mexico to benefit Pennsylvania's manufacturing sector.

Pence predicted the trade pact would increase the more than $14 billion in goods and services that Pennsylvania already sells to Canada and Mexico.

“You're going to create even more jobs, more opportunity and more prosperity right here in Pennsylvania,” Pence told a crowd of employees and Republican faithful on the manufacturing floor of York-based JLS Automation.

JLS Automation's president and CEO Craig Souser told the crowd that the thriving 64-year-old company has benefited from selling to Canada's food market, but a modernized trade policy like the administration's deal with Canada and Mexico, would open new avenues.

“We need Congress to help level the playing field,” Souser said. “We can take care of the rest.”

Democrats have sought stronger enforcement of labor standards and oppose a provision protecting drugmakers from competition.

Pence's visit comes as President Donald Trump's campaign is ramping up its reelection effort in a state where he scored a surprise 2016 win, delivering a crushing loss to Democrat Hillary Clinton on his way to becoming the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988.