Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is urging lawmakers in Washington to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which she says will help bring stability to her state's agriculture industry.
"Our message to Congress is to please rectify the USMCA. That'll bring a lot of certainty and predictability to the market," Reynolds told Cheddar on Thursday.
Following a year of negotiations, the USMCA was signed by President Donald Trump, now former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last November at the G-20 Summit in Buenos Aires. The trade deal was meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which was established in 1994 and created a free trade zone between the three neighbors.
In an overwhelming vote last week, Mexico's General Congress approved the USMCA making Mexico the first country to fully sign onto the deal. The U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament have yet to ratify the pact.
"This is a very important advance," Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said at a press conference last week. "It is a clear sign that there is unity in the country."
Canada and Mexico are currently the second and third largest trading partners with the U.S., with total trade topping $617 billion and $611 billion in 2018 respectively, according to government figures.
The USMCA covers numerous aspects of cross-border trade, including labor laws, environmental standards, and intellectual property rights. It also has specific provisions for various sectors like auto manufacturers, digital services, and agriculture. The U.S., for instance, negotiated hard for easier access to the Canadian dairy market.
Democrats, however, have expressed concerns over weak enforcement measures on workers' rights and environmental regulations, and have refused to hold a vote on the deal in the House.
"Without real enforcement mechanisms we would be locking American workers into another bad deal. A new trade agreement without enforcement is not progress for the American worker, just a press release for the President," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement in May. "We have been on a path to yes, but it must be a path that leads to an agreement that delivers positive results for American workers and farmers."
Nonetheless, Reynolds told Cheddar that Iowa's economy is growing, despite "some significant challenges with agricultural." Iowa is currently the second largest agricultural exporter in the U.S., with nearly 50 percent of its exports going to Canada and Mexico in 2018.
Farmers "really, really, really would like to see USMCA ratified," the Republican governor said.
Online platform Assemble is looking to provide career instruction and inspiration to Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) of all age groups for access to industries they might not have been privy to prior. Actor, activist, and one of Assemble's three co-founders, Jesse Williams, and CEO Cortney Woodruff joined Cheddar's "Between Bells" to discuss the Assemble mission and what people can expect from the program. "There's a lot of jobs that folks don't know even exist in the first place, and what we know is that there are incredible innovators at the peak of their field that are Black and brown – in every single field," Williams noted.
Payoneer CEO Scott Galit joined Wake Up With Cheddar to talk about the company's partnership with Walmart to provide working capital to retailers on Walmart's marketplace.
As the country continues to bounce back from the job losses felt at the start of the pandemic, businesses are still struggling to fill jobs, mainly due to the record number of people who have voluntarily left the workforce. and experts say that the challenge of finding the people to fill those roles will likely follow us well into 2022. Beth Ann Bovino, U.S. Chief Economist at S&P Global Ratings explains what’s behind the ‘Great Resignation’.
Between uncertainty over the Omicron variant, and the possibility of a sooner-than-expected taper from the Fed, it was an especially volatile week for the markets. The release of the November jobs report on Friday, with job growth coming in way lower than estimates also caused movement on the market. Frances Stacy, Director of Strategy at Optimal Capital explains why all of this, combined with Bitcoin’s huge drop over the weekend, could make for another rough week for investors.
It was a chaotic week for the market, as investors reacted to the new omicron variant. Today though is all about jobs. Just ahead of the November jobs report, David Riley, Chief Investment Strategist at Blue Bay Asset management gave a run down of what to expect from the report, and what it could mean for investors.
Developers for the video game "Call of Duty: Warzone" staged a walkout in protest of 12 quality assurance testers being laid off by parent company Activision Blizzard. This marks the latest work stoppage for the embattled game publishing giant.
Troubled Chinese real estate giant Evergrande is once again nearing the brink of collapse. Shares of Evergrande sunk to a new record low on Monday, closing down 20 percent, as debt default fears resurfaced. Drew Bernstein, co-chairman at consultancy MarcumBP, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss. He said U.S. investors have to understand that "there is no company in China that's too big to fail, that's for sure," and that the Chinese government will be prioritizing the social welfare of the populace. Bernstein did note that it would be a managed collapse in some form.
Earlier this year, JetBlue flew its inaugural flight into the United Kingdom. It was a game changer — not only did the airline enter the transatlantic market, but the plane that completed the flight was a single-aisle jet. For decades, flying the distance was synonymous with jumbo jets, but today narrow-body aircraft are now proving they are up for the task — and maybe even the best option. In this episode, Cheddar examines why airlines are betting on narrow-body aircraft.
Carlo and Baker discuss the sweeping new vaccine mandate in NYC that will target all private businesses. Plus, Trump's media venture gets its CEO and more.
