on board, you have to imagine it will be tough for progressives to want to support a bill that is $733which is far above anythy want or would support. >> appreciate it and all your insights. we will continue to follow you on twitter. and you are reporting at politico.com. thank you so much. guest: thank you. >> we have been planning to bring you coverage of a meeting of the group christians united for israel with remarks from secretary of state mike pompeo and national security advisor john bolton. we are having some technical issues with our signal. we hope to have that results pretty quickly. when we do, we will bring it to you live here on c-span. until then, some of this morning's "washington journal." host: joining us now this morning from seattle, gary locke, the former u.s.

ambassador to china, former u.s. commerce secretary, and former governor of the state of washington. thank you for joining us this morning. we ask you to come on as part of your co-chairmanship, honorary co-chairmanship. we are talking about trade here. tell us about your organization and what you are looking to do right now. guest: i'm very proud to be part of this organization, which is made up of so many different industries and business groups from around the country. including agriculture, manufacturing, minority chambers of commerce, pharmaceutical companies, and it is really to promote the passage and approval of congress for the usmca. 2.0nd of call it nafta because it is modernizing nafta, which was approved by the congress more than 25 years ago

and since then our economy has changed. we have seen some of the defects and shortcomings of nafta. our economy has changed. we now have so much commerce in terms of e-books, video games, music and so forth and we really need to update nafta to both address the shortcomings and also to address this type of new economy. the end result is that it will mean more jobs for the people of america. reduce the incentives to outsource to other countries. making sure that those things that are done in canada or mexico and especially mexico pay a significantly higher wage and also removing barriers for u.s. products. for instance, agricultural products so that our farmers and growers and manufacturers can do more. when i was at the commerce department we had a saying that the more american companies export, the more they produce. the more they produce, the more workers they need and that means jobs for the american people. host: the phone numbers are at the bottom of the screen for gary locke. we are talking about trade, specifically the usmca.

we are going to find out about the status in a moment. we will have lines for democrats, republicans, independents on the bottom of the screen for gary locke, who again is the former commerce secretary and former u.s. ambassador to china and former governor of washington. so, mr. locke, time running out. we read one of the headlines, time running out on a summer vote for the usmca. exactly what is the status of this trade agreement now? guest: the administration is working with members of congress , both the house and senate, democrats and republicans, on putting together the implementation language, the enforceable agreement that would then be submitted to the congress. they haven't done that yet. they are trying to work out their differences ahead of time so that the so-called legislation would reflect the concerns of the members of congress so that they have a majority in both the house and the senate. once that's finalized and an actual bill is submitted to the

congress, the house has six days to pass it and the senate has 90 days in which to pass it. they are really working still right now on those details. host: what are we hearing from members of the congress in the u.s. about prospects for passage and is this deadline -- what exactly is the deadline and is it a firm deadline? guest: it's a firm deadline in terms of how soon the house on the senate must pass the legislation. once the legislation is actually officially introduced by the administration. the clock starts ticking at that point. but they have not yet submitted that legislation so there is no clock ticking. of course politics enters into this and some are afraid if the agreement isn't right by the -- ratified by the congress by the fall then once you get into the 2020 election cycles than then all bets are off. so it's imperative the members of congress really try to work some of these details out.

some of the details are around enforceability. just how will the united states make sure that canada and mexico abide by the terms of the agreement. of course mexico has already passed the agreement. they have also passed a lot of new laws. for instance, allowing labor unions to organize and how they will enforce their provisions and to make sure that this agreement really has teeth. host: let's take a look at some of the provisions in detail. i want to start first with some of the facts from the u.s. trade rep's office. access of dairy, poultry, and egg products to canada. how important is this yo usmca to agriculture? guest: it's a big deal for agriculture which is why so many different agricultural groups have endorsed it from the dairy council to different growers. certainly wine will benefit.

in my state of washington, wine is a big export crop or export item. for instance british columbia , does not allow u.s. wines to be displayed on their normal wine shelves. it has to be almost displayed in secret. so that will remove some of the barriers. some of the disincentives and some of the favoritism that canada has given to their agricultural industry, there their dairy industry will go away and they've really had some tough measures that have made it hard for u.s. agriculture dairy, poultry, and eggs to get into canada. a lot of those barriers are being removed. host: a couple points about automobiles as part of the proposed deal. members must prove 75% of an automobile to be tariff free and at least 40% of a car must be made by workers earning at least $16 an hour. some big provisions regarding autos. right?

guest: yes. at least 75% of an automobile must be made within north america. in order to not be subject to duties, which simply increases the cost of that automobile. and 40% to 45% of the contents of that automobile must be made where wages exceed or equal $16 an hour. that's really aimed at mexico. that's really aimed at making sure that if parts are made in mexico that they have to pay at least $16 an hour. this will certainly discourage u.s. companies from having parts being made in mexico or sending some of the assembly work to mexico. it really makes sure that there's more of a level playing field in terms of wages so that there's less incentive to send this work to other countries whether mexico or canada.

host: we will get to more of those provisions of the usmca and what they actually mean and we will get reaction to what's going on. let's hear from some callers first. eddie is up first from mitchell, indiana. democratic caller. hi, eddie. caller: good morning. thank you, guys. host: you are welcome. caller: i have three comments. one of them is i had to sit through some classes at ford motor company and they talked about how quality was in other nations, and it's like during the hours america destroyed most of these places and america rebuilt them. my second one is the law that the government passed to allow jobs to go to foreign countries , i guess they never ever took that away. and my third one, what really upsets me more than anything else, that they talk about tariffs and how it's going to hurt everybody. when the price of gas goes up $.40 on the gallon and it takes three months to go down, i believe that hurts america more than it does anything else.

thank you guys and i appreciate you taking my call. host: gary locke in seattle. you can take any or all of those if you like. guest: obviously, as a former governor and commerce secretary, we want to keep as many jobs in the united states and certainly manufacturing jobs because we know manufacturing jobs pay on average a lot more than the typical wage. we want to keep those jobs here and that's what the new trade agreement modification of nafta will do. it will make it easier for u.s. companies to export. takes away some of the barriers that other countries like canada have imposed on our agricultural sector. and certainly, it discourages auto companies and parts companies from having that work done in places like mexico because if it is to be done in mexico, a bigger percentage of those parts and items have to be made where wages are at least

$16 an hour. certainly, 75% of all the parts of that automobile must be made in north america whether it's the united states, canada, or mexico benefits mexico they have to pay a higher wage. that's going to discourage parts from being made in other parts of the world and coming in. that's really going to keep jobs in north america and especially the united states. host: alex is calling in lake charles, louisiana. independent line for gary locke. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask about international arbitration. in light of what seems to be a curtailing of the investor stake settlement mechanism in the usmca, do you think that we can expect the same type of deemphasis in future trade negotiations, especially with more developing nations in southeast asia? you say thewhen

deemphasis that's going to prove advantageous to the united states in light of the u.s. as well as u.s. companies favorable record in international arbitration? guest: well, that's pretty technical and a little bit beyond my pay grade. but let me just say that a lot of the concerns that people have about relinquishing u.s. sovereignty in our court system and things like that are not being diminished in this agreement. and the other countries have already passed their versions of the agreement and have included significant enforceability provisions, and the u.s. trade representative has made it very , very clear that the united states government will enforce the provisions of this and we will not have to go to international tribunals and we have mechanisms in place that would allow the united states on its own to make sure that we are able to enforce this without having to go to international tribunals.

host: so we know folks want to make changes to this dispute settlement system. how did nafta work in terms of disputes? what were the processes in general, and were they effective? i think some people would say they were pretty effective. i think the reason we are doing usmca is because we have seen problems arise over the last 25 years in terms of the outsourcing of so many jobs to mexico, where wages were so low. and that's why there were key provisions in this new version in which at least 40% to 45% of the work must be with wages of $16 or more and that there have to be more of the contents being , 75% of the content of an automobile, for instance, being made in north america. so i think we've seen that nafta was not perfect.

certainly there was still discrimination against the agricultural industry. unfair subsidies. for instance, to fishing industries and things like that. and american workers and american companies have had to abide by for instance child labor standards, environmental provisions, and health and safety rules, and it's unfair when workers and companies in other countries don't have to abide by those strict rules , therefore putting u.s. companies whether it's our farmers or manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage because for instance if another country can grow things or do things without having to watch out for the use of pesticides and the protection of their workers, if companies don't have to follow high environmental standards it means those products are cheaper. and so it's harder for american companies and american products

to therefore compete whether in that particular foreign country or around the world. and that's what is good about the usmca. it's really raising the standard in so many areas. things that labor unions and our manufacturers have long said have been unfair practices by other countries. host: let me add in the voice of richard trumka. he has spoken recently about this and he said that nafta isn't broken. it's done exactly what it was meant to do. it exploited workers in mexico, -- >> we believe this discussion at this point. you can see the rest of it on our website, c-span.org. we will go now live to a forum for a group called christians united for israel. among the speakers, secretary of state mike pompeo and john bolton, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will also address the gathering via videoconference. is