Tag: North American Free Trade Agreement

U.S. factories that move jobs south of the border. Yet the pact would also give pharmaceutical companies 10 years' protection from cheaper competition in a category of ultra-expensive drugs called biologics, which are made from living cells. The objections of DeLauro and other Democrats suddenly carry greater potency. The need to curb high drug prices has become a rallying cry for voters of all political stripes. Like Trump, many Democrats blamed NAFTA for encouraging U.S. factories to capitalize on lower-wage Mexican labor and then to ship goods back into the U.S., duty-free. North American free trade deal. So the new pact wouldn't change the status quo in the United States, though it would force Mexico to expand biologics' monopoly from five years and Canada from eight years. In fact, supporters of the biologics monopoly argue that the pact might cut prices in the United States because drug companies would no longer face pressure to charge Americans more to compensate for lower prices in Canada and Mexico. For Democrats, higher drug prices are shaping up as a powerful political argument against approving the president's new North American trade deal. They're the kinds of voters Democrats hope to attract in 2020.

Perdue’s chocolate milk salute to the dairy lobby was just one example of how the Trump administration has worked closely with the dairy industry, at a time when the president’s trade war has hurt farmers. The Dairy Farmers of America spent $924,000, including on school milk, according to CRP. Then, in December, the new school milk rules were finalized. They saw milk sales were declining, they continued to decline in schools,” said Frye. Getting low-fat flavored milk back in schools, she said, was one of the “top five” issues for milk processors. The federal rulemaking process requires agencies to seek public comment on new policies. “If we want healthy, informed future citizens in this country let’s start by giving them quality meals in school so they can concentrate and absorb information.” Nevertheless, in its final decision the agency wrote: “After careful consideration of all stakeholders’ comments, USDA believes that school nutrition operators have made the case that this final rule’s targeted regulatory flexibility is practical and necessary for efficient Program operation.” In defense of the new rules, Perdue tweeted: “Nutritious school meals don’t do anyone any good if kids just throw them into the trash.” The USDA was “empowering local schools” to serve “healthy AND appetizing food” – an argument often made by the dairy industry. Kids drank 288 million fewer half pints between 2012 and 2015, lobbyists said. The milk standards are part of the federal government’s subsidized meal program, which feeds more than 31 million kids each day, many of whom get meals free or at reduced prices because their families are low-income. Don't bank on it Read more A nutritionist for the University of California called the idea that chocolate milk could help athletes “preposterous”.

Atlanta, Georgia (CNN)If the Democrats make gains in the midterm elections next week, their lawmakers could assert themselves more aggressively on the foreign policy issues that have defined much of Donald Trump's presidency -- trade, climate change and the Iran deal, to name a few. The President is now focused on immigration and the narrative that the US is about to be "invaded" by Central American migrants. Trump continues to warn of dangers from abroad -- migrants, the Chinese, Muslims -- and then offers hot-button solutions: troops at the border, tariffs, travel bans. The President is using the politics of fear. is experiencing some of the same political maelstroms that have played out in other parts of the world. In the two weeks leading up to the vote, pipe bombs were mailed to Democratic leaders, Trump critics and CNN. Trump's misinformation campaign continues. Fox News and the White House appear to have coordinated false narratives about the migrants heading toward the country. These scenes of division, anger and fear, however, are not exclusive to Trump and his America. America is unlikely to settle down after the midterms.

An enthusiastic crowd showed up at the National Gallery of Canada for a sold-out New York Times event this week in which Julie Hirschfeld Davis, a White House correspondent, joined Jonathan Martin and Astead Herndon, two of our political correspondents, to talk with me about the state of American politics. Here’s a glimpse, edited for clarity and brevity: How do Americans feel about President Trump’s attacks on Canada? The game of politics is no longer existing outside of things like culture or outside of the questions of who we are as Americans. You have a president who just likes talking about domestic policy and also weighs in on the cultural event of the day. players are doing on the field or whether it is what the latest celebrity said at the Oscars. Are Americans developing a kind of scandal fatigue around Mr. Trump? Julie: People’s threshold for taking this stuff in is really skewed right now; people don’t know how to process all of these revelations. Julie: I’ve been to several rallies with President Trump. He tends to bounce around a lot, he doesn’t like to stick to his script. Monsters of the Woods and Lakes A couple of weeks ago a court case in British Columbia involving the existence of the sasquatch led us to ask you about mythical creatures in your part of the country.

Here’s more on how Chapter 19 works and why Canada thinks it’s important. The work of this panel – the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board – has been under scrutiny this summer after a court ruling that upended how Canada’s cultural property rules worked. The court ruling that has put the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion into doubt dimmed the hopes of many in Alberta, where businesses and workers in the oil patch were pinning their homes on a long-awaited economic recovery on the project. A lawyer for a family in Vancouver that owns a number of notorious low-income hotels say the city’s attempt to expropriate two properties is “draconian" and that local officials haven’t acted in good faith. A lawyer for the Sahota family, whose record of violations was documented in a Globe and Mail investigation, has filed a challenge of the expropriation attempt. And in what some are calling yet another dark day for Myanmar’s democracy, two Reuters journalists have been sentenced to jail for seven years for reporting on the country’s brutal treatment of Rohingya people. " A win later this month at the North American free-trade talks would go a long way to repairing the damage. But if those talks fail, the Liberals will be challenged to win the next election, a prospect that seemed unlikely mere months ago.” Margaret Wente (The Globe and Mail) on wildfires: “The trouble is that proper forest management is extremely expensive. Each country has to ultimately act in its own best interest in trade negotiations without relying on elusive goodwill among partners.” Help The Globe monitor political ads on Facebook: During an election campaign, you can expect to see a lot of political ads. The Globe and Mail wants to report on how these ads are used, but we need to see the same ads Facebook users are seeing.

Trump’s move on Friday to notify Congress that he planned to sign a deal with Mexico in 90 days and would include Canada “if it is willing” appeared to avoided what many in the U.S. business community and Congress had seen as a worst-case scenario. “We were far better off before NAFTA — should never have been signed. We make new deal or go back to pre-NAFTA!” Trump said. While the two sides failed to meet a deadline set by the White House, both U.S. and Canadian negotiators insisted that they were making progress. Under rules set by Congress, the administration is now facing a 30-day deadline to provide a full text of the agreement. ‘Win-Win-Win’ “We know that a win-win-win agreement is within reach,” Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian foreign minister, told reporters in Washington after talks wrapped up on Friday. But “Canada will only sign a deal that’s a good deal for Canada, we are very, very clear about that,” she added. Under fast-track rules, Trump must notify Congress 90 days before signing the deal. ‘Woefully Incomplete’ “Actually fixing Nafta requires reaching a trade agreement with both Mexico and Canada,” she said. “Without a final agreement with Canada, the administration’s work is woefully incomplete.” The administration had constructive talks with Canada this week and is still hopeful the nation will join the deal with the U.S. and Mexico, a senior administration official told reporters Friday.

The U.S. and Mexico struck a trade deal designed to supplant the North American Free Trade Agreement, President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office Monday. The Morning Joe panel discusses Trump's remarks. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC…

The U.S. and Mexico are close to reaching a deal settling their differences on the North American Free Trade Agreement. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc About: MSNBC is the premier destination for in-depth analysis of daily headlines, insightful political commentary…

Yet another populist candidate was elected to a presidency this weekend, this time in Mexico where leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often referred to as AMLO, was elected in a landslide on Sunday night. Obrador ran on a campaign to end corruption and fight back against rampant violence, and capitalized on a pervasive feeling of disenfranchisement among many voters who felt left out or forgotten about by the political establishment. It’s the third time Obrador has run for president after unsuccessful bids in 2006 and 2012. But between the populist wave of frustration among voters with the establishment and, some would say, a collapse down the stretch by his opponents, AMLO was able to capture more than half the vote, according to early returns. Not unlike President Trump did during his campaign, Obrador called out the political establishment and its elite for failing to understand the average citizen and promised to bring a fresh perspective to Mexican government that is more closely connected to the needs of the common man. Many questions still remain unanswered, however, in the wake of the election. What will this mean for the future of relations between the U.S. and Mexico, and specifically how will Obrador get along with President Trump? What of the border wall that President Trump wants built and for which he has said Mexico will pay? And with NAFTA currently being re-negotiated, what will Obrador’s impact be on those talks? Guests: Genaro Lozano, a professor of political science and international relations at the Iberoamerican University in Mexico City; he is also columnist for the Mexican newspaper Reforma; he tweets @genarolozano Rachel Schmidtke, program associate for migration at the Mexico Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C.

The Story: In an interview with Reuters, President Trump said Wednesday, January 17, that he may pull The United States out of the North American...