these days, you not only have to embrace the president, you have to embrace all of his politics and his behavior in order to get through a republican primary. and that was never in the cards for me. i just couldn't do it. >> join us for conversations with retiring members of congress saturday, starting at 9:00 eastern on c-span and c-span.org. or listen with the free c-span radio app. todd tucker joins us now to talk about the new u.s. canada mexico agreement that president trump hopes will replace that stuff. esther tucker, you work as a fellow, political scientist at the roosevelt institute people is the roosevelt institute? guest: it is a think tank attached to the franklin delano rosen of presidential library. like a lot of think tanks out there, presidential libraries out there, there is a think tank attached to it that does work to promote the legacy of president roosevelt.

there is a george bush think tank, a ronald reagan think tank , and we are the fdr think tank. host: is it funded through the same streams as a library? guest: it's a project of the national archives, semi-governmental, but also funded by foundations. host: did you take a position on whether nafta, renegotiated in the first place here? guest: we were not around when nafta was originally signed and we have not taken a formal position on the trade agreement. host: what are your thoughts on the usmca, what do you like about it, don't like? chuck grassley, one of the president's major allies in congress sort of said yesterday it is about 95% the same as the north american free trade agreement, the original 1993 packed. of ank that's a bit exaggeration, certainly takes a lot of aspects, but also updates

it with things that barack obama included as part of the transpacific partnership. it is a mix of those agreements. what is unusual about it is the way the deal got done. certainly not the typical way that we see things done in congress. basically come the trump administration threatening canada and mexico with higher tariffs and perhaps a determination of the underlying nafta agreement if they did not agree to this new deal. that is part of the reason why you see so much attention paid about what the deal is actually called. is it nafta, nafta 2.0, nafta 2018? the president prefers the u.s. xcode canada agreement, usmca. a lot of folks talking on twitter about it. the branding is perhaps more important than the content. host: the deal still has to be approved by congress. , ast now, as you look at it we have been going through these

documents over the past 48 hours or so since canada agree to this usmca, who are the winners and losers in your mind? guest: i think business was eager to see the instability caused by the discussions brought to a close. they wanted to have certainty for what the deal was going to mean going forward. that was -- business was almost willing to accept almost the talks ofong as instability were tantamount. sector was one area where there has been a number of changes. the trump administration negotiated pretty interesting and historic provisions that would require certain amounts of content of autos to be made by high paid workers, $16 an hour. that is the first time in a trade agreement we have seen some thing like that. whatutomakers are saying

it will actually cause them to do is source more of their products from china, forgo nafta altogether. nafta is not the only trade agreement out there. there is also something called the wto which establishes a floor that mexico and canada can take advantage of. automakers predict importers will choose to use more of the devotee of benefits. host: this negotiated issue has a 16-your sunset clause, reviews every six years, could extend that sunset clause another 16 years. some concern that that creates the instability that you were talking about. guest: nafta always had a termination provision. the sunset provision is not anything terribly new. but what it does do is force policymakers every so often to evaluate the pros and cons of the agreement in a formalized

way, say yes, we are going to her new our vows and stick with the agreement. host: we should invite their viewers in the we are talking with todd tucker from the roosevelt institute. republicans can call in on (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. .ndependent, (202) 748-8002 we will go through more aspects of the usmca. why was dairy such a major part of the deal? guest: that is one of the few things that did change of it with the agreement. it's been a long-standing demand of dairy farmers across the united states to have more access to canada's market. canada has a supply management system which is semi-governmental, concern and was keeping out certain products, dairy products from the u.s. so you have dairy farmers in every state of the union practically, even some democrats like chuck schumer and others praising aspects of the deal that would expand a little bit

the market access of u.s. dairy producers to canada. that was one of the last things that was agreed to in the late hours of sunday night when the deal was announced. host: when there are disputes among the trade partners, how will that be resolved, is it different from how it was resolved under nafta? guest: one of canada's main demands was to overhaul aspects of the dispute settlement system. they have been concerned when congress or regulatory agencies in the u.s. are concerned about unfair trade that the court review of what is called antidumping rules, they were worried that canadians were not getting a fair shake. that was a nonnegotiable demand on the part of canada and they largely kept intact. deal, thects of the government to government dispute settlements, largely the same. a little change in the way investors investing across borders will settle disputes. that's been a major demand of democrats. talk about any

aspects of his complicated deal. todd tucker here to take your calls and questions. tom is up first, johnson city, tennessee. caller: good morning, john. thank you for c-span and all the folks behind scenes. tucker, on ask mr. the bylines that we keep on hearing regarding the dairy industry, the concessions that canada had to make in order to satisfy the trump administration , my suspicions are that he knows something. another election year, campaign promise that he says he could make. i just want to hear his comments. guest: absolutely. the trump administration sort of has a rhetorical and political

grasp on the electoral map of the country. we saw that in the 2016 elections clearly. while the clinton campaign was not really sending folks to michigan and wisconsin, you have the trump administration really picking trade as a major issue to campaign on, appealing to concern on the part of manufacturing workers in particular about job losses as a result of nafta and other trade deals. the administration certainly has their finger on the pulse. the dairy aspect is clearly a part of that. there needed to be at least a little bit of market opening so the trump administration could say that it was different than the underlying nafta. wisconsin,t out, some of these key states, dairy is a big issue. will beng else, that something the administration can campaign on going into 2020. host: brett is in pennsylvania.

independent. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i heard something there that was pretty disappointing about his car companies going around the new deal and just buy all their parts from china. i don't know if that will work. america is awake now. we support our president. a lot of talk from people who don't even vote, out there protesting, they probably don't even have a voter registration card. there are plenty of us veterans, which i am one, and good working union guys all over the country, different generations, we saw our manufacturing base was given away. now we have a president that want to take it back and you are saying these companies are going around the back door and sneak stuff in from china? i don't think the american public will go for that. we won all of our stuff made here as much as possible. four years until we finally got a president.

he said that over 30 years ago. this guy is where the rubber meets the road. host: on manufacturing and world of origin. guest: you are absolutely correct, that this has been the longest standing policy position of donald trump, he has talked about this going back to the 1980's and 1990's. he switched his party affiliation from democrat to republican and then back again. his position on trade policy has been an absolute constant. really set astion an objective to have more u.s. autos and auto parts made in the u.s. come north america. the problem he ran up against is the u.s., a year after nafta was signed in 1993, we did the truth -- wto in 1994. the u.s. said we would have a 2.5% tariff on autos.

that is the floor that mexico and canada can expect. importers, as they are choosing to bring autos into the country, have a choice. are they going to use the wto rules or nafta rules? the challenge with increasing the content, the rules of origin , that came from mexico or the region, the challenge of doing that was if you raised it to high, importers what using debbie to benefits instead. a lot of automakers are saying on paper this may look like it would increase the number of auto jobs and auto parts jobs in the u.s., instead what we will see is importers choosing to use the wto rules, pay a slight tariff, and import lower-cost products from china. twitter, they write, they need us, we don't need them. we can negotiate from there. do you agree? guest: it is tough.

the administration was threatening to pull out of the underlying nafta, or that they would raise -- citing national security reasons -- raise auto tariffs to 25%. the problem is a lot of those rules are either not possible or perhaps unconstitutional. we have never had an administration testing the limits of our national security us as much as we have seen with this administration, but that is something that they have been pushing the envelope on. there are lawsuits in court right now challenging some of their trade moves on international grounds. host: the president talking about the renegotiation of that day and what it means for future trade deals. >> the big trade deal, largest deal ever made so far in trade. i expect to top it with china or

eu or something. but this is the largest ever made. as you know, now we are working on china, japan, we are working on eu. these are great deals for our nation and great deals for our workers. host: what does china, japan, the eu take from this usmca negotiation? guest: that has been the big issue. as a policy issue, political issue, it's been china. is basically balanced, has not lost a lot of jobs to nafta. it is really the china shock. china coming to the wto that is the big enchilada, things that republicans and democrats are concerned about. the two years spent on nafta has been time not spent to go shooting a deal with china. now both the eu and china are looking to, what will this mean for them?

as we go into the midterm elections, the president may have a democratic congress that is less sympathetic to his goals and may be less willing partner. the chinese government reads the newspaper's just like folks in the u.s. do, and those of that will be the likely outcome of the election. so the president may not be going into a lot of new negotiations with as much political capital he had to begin with. host: joey is in search, new york. democrat. caller: thank you for c-span. i'm in dairy farmer myself and i do business in canada. let's go to john in vancouver, washington. caller: good morning. i work for a company that brings in about a million tons of steel are year, unfinished slabs to oregon steel, which gets rolled into coil and plates. they also loan two plants in

canada, combined, are the largest steel producers in canada. they are getting triple tariffs. 25% in the cvb account. when i bring it in, they roll it. another 25% going into canada. then canada sends the steel to the manufacturers in the u.s., and they get tariffs again. maybe those are unintended consequences. they are just now opening up their pipe mill. fun of a low blow with these as theyts -- tariffs try to expand all of these jobs and have to pay triple. guest: the trump administration's first big trade policy was putting tariffs on steel and aluminum. one of the major things they cited was national security

reasons. the steel industry for number of years have had profitability problems, it's in the national interest to have a steel industry, so therefore the administration needed to institute tariffs so there could be more profitability. one of the things we have seen in the last few weeks is the benefit to the trip protection have not been trickling down to the workers. you see steel workers around the country threatening to go on strike, demanding a fair share of the profits that were created as a result of the tariffs. what happens with the steel and aluminum terrace, what is the relationship like, what is the trust between the u.s. and canada in the wake of this negotiation? guest: the two issues were very interrelated the whole process. canada was hoping they would have a way out of the national security tariffs if they agree to trump's terms on nafta.

a number of side letters as part of the new agreement that perhaps give canada relief on that front. but the issue going forward -- certainly for my colleagues in canada what i'm hearing -- is concern is if they were not able to trust the truck administrat -- trump administration now, what will this mean going forward? host: did canada get a good deal? guest: i think they wanted to make sure the apple cart was not upset. they view this as the price they had to pay. if they had to rebrand the nafta to do that, they did that. host: bill is in mobile, alabama. republican. caller: i feel so hard for mr. trump or because he is trying so hard not to give credit to mr. trump. he is tucker because trying so hard not to give credit to mr. trump. he is saying it is not a big

deal other than what was negotiated by mr. obama. passed andve been included in a modification of nafta, which it was not. it was only because of trump's aggressive threats that he made, which he could've backed up, and would have, that canada modified importation their of steel, aluminum, other things. it was only because of his skills with mexico that we now have improvement in those rules. i was in mobile. after nafta was passed, we had ts closing and moved to mexico. for mr. tucker to defend it was no big deal, the debbie to was the really the important one. i am sad for him. i know he is trying his best. give it up. host: let me give him a chance to respond. guest: the caller is right,

there are a number of important changes in this version of nafta. chapter,bor rights unlike what bill clinton negotiated, labor rights are brought into the core of the agreement. referencedst time, to violence against workers, paid time off, a number of important policies for the first time brought by reference into the core of trade agreement. what i think folks, labor unions, democrats will be the ones that ultimately have to support or oppose the deal. what they are looking to is enforcement provisions. it is nice to have these references, but will they be backed up with enforcement? that is where the rubber hits the road. over the next few weeks, we will see where that pans out. host: frank is in new york. independent. caller: thank you for kate my call. but to know with the new trade

deal, the dairy deal, are we going to see lower dairy prices in this country? that is the bottom line. lower pricesl be for dairy in canada more than here in the u.s. 0.3%, 1% ofe about the market will be opened up in canada. for certain products in canada they will see lower prices of the overall impact, we don't have the official projections of what the deal will do in macro economic terms right now. for nafta was about a percentage point of gdp. this largely adopt a lot of the rules of nafta, so it's unclear that we will see a lot of impact for consumers or the economy as a whole. host: what do you think was left on the cutting room floor, what opportunities were missed? like: you had democrats elizabeth warren demand thing a complete remodeling of the rights that multinational

investors get as a part of the deal, investor state dispute settlement. i wrote a book about it if you're interested. this was a major demand for an overhaul of that agreement. companies to sue governments over environmental regulations. it's been something democrats have long opposed. the trump administration initially promised they would get rid of it or refashion it substantially. they have made some modifications to the rules but largely they have carved it out so that oil and gas companies can continue to have access to that system, be allowed to sue governments. somethinge from being that benefited all investors to now something that benefits just oil and gas companies. host: you mention environmental regulations. one of the things that was touted was protections and environmental regulations. guest: one of the big things the new deal does relative to the

underlying nafta is bring environmental rules into the core of the agreement. labor and environmental rules. that is certainly a big change relative to the underlying nafta. what it is what obama -- negotiated as part of the transpacific partnership. the obama administration had already made that move. when this in ministration is doing is saying, us, too, we are going to be a part of that. host: time for a few more calls. donald in kalamazoo, michigan. republican. caller: i would just like to say when nafta -- a couple years after it was enacted. it took two or three years before anything happened. doors were being closed in michigan all over the place. everything you could name was being closed. i went to mexico a few times and everywhere you look, things were being built. highways, bridges, buildings.

it was unbelievable. the united states construction workers could not even buy a job. it was a terrible deal. the other thing i want to square up. a lot of people blame the republicans for nafta. it was not the republicans who passed nafta. you can read bill clinton's book. they had a majority in the senate and the white house. there was no way in hell the republicans could pass nafta. host: that is right. guest: 1993, 1994, the most consequential trade agreements the u.s. has ever signed was passed by no clinton, a democrat, approved by democratic votes in congress. the caller is right, would not have happened without democratic support. that is part of the reason why over the past few decades, debates within the democratic party have been what is their policy on trade and how can they reconnect with some of the manufacturing workers that have been left behind?

one of the year to petition you can take away from the toy 16 election was a long-standing dismissal and failure to pay attention to those workers was what harmed hillary clinton in the key battleground states. eastpointecall in michigan, democrat. good morning. caller: i wish they would find a way to import more from australia, canada. my local grocery store is selling choice, not prime, at $20 a pound. baloney, snouts, years, everything mixed together, eight dollars a pound. when i was a kid, $.13 a pound. fish used to be the meal that you substituted for meet on friday. that is about $13.99 a pound, and that is a kroger. we didn't have an income tax until 1913. if the united states regained control of its money through the

federal reserve, which is not the federal reserve -- i didn't mean that -- i'm at the treasury department. we need to run and control our money again and take it out of the hands of the bankers. guest: the beef issue, it's interesting you mention that. australia, new zealand are big importers -- exporters of land, meat. fill the trump administration rejoin some version of the transpacific partnership, which was the trade deal which they withdrew their participation from the first week he was in office. since mexico and canada are part of the tpp and a lot of these rules are the same, observers are looking into what is the move that would be required for the trump administration to pick up where the obama administration left off. host: we will leave it there. >> tonight in the race for

iowa's third congressional district seat, incumbent representative david young faces democratic challenger cindy axney in a debate in johnson, iowa. live coverage starts at 8:00 p.m. easternen c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. >> c-span's student cam video competition? full swing. this year's question, what does it mean to be american? students and teachers from around the country have take ton social media, posting about their entries. a.p. government teacher mrs. dualy tweeted, celebrating government with a little cake. john ivy tweeted special thanks to our middle school, showcasing their #c-spanproject.

>> this year for student wam we're asking middle and high school students to produce a five to six-minute documentary, we're awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline is january 20. for more information go to our website, studentcam.org. >> the candidates for arkansas' second u.s. congressional district seat, republican incumbent representative french hill, democratic challenger larke tucker and libertarian joe ryan swaffered faced each