WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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Vice President Mike Pence will be in Indianapolis on Thursday to promote a new trade agreement to replace NAFTA.
According to the IndyStar, Pence is scheduled as the featured speaker at an event hosted by America First Policies, a nonprofit that promotes President Donald Trump’s campaign agenda.
The event at MacAllister Machinery will include a panel on how the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement would benefit the U.S.
The USMCA would, among other things, require forty to forty-five percent of auto parts to be produced in countries that pay workers a wage of at least sixteen dollars an hour. And, seventy-five percent of a car’s value must come from North America. It would also expand US access to Canadian dairy and poultry markets as well as creating new protections for intellectual property.
Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb has stated his support for the deal. In an opinion piece for the Evansville Courier and Press, he wrote that since Indiana is the second largest automobile manufacturing state in the country, it would benefit considerably from the new deal.
Leaders of the U.S. Mexico and Canada signed onto the agreement last November. Mexico’s congress has already approved the agreement, but legislators in the U.S. and Canada have yet to ratify it. The agreement could fall prey to election politics in both countries. In the U.S. it must get through the Democrat controlled House of Representatives, where Democrats have voiced concern the agreement lacks strong protections for workers, and the environment.
