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>> the vice president also toured a dairy farm and discuss the economy in the u.s.-mexico canada trade remit. the new free trade accord went into effect july 1. 1. [applause]

>> i got to make sure i turned this on. yes, i did. welcome, everybody. we are thankful you could come and partake in this great privilege that we have here to entertain our vice president, mike pence. [applause]

>> i guess i got to be careful not to clap into this thing. i'm a dairy farmer, not a speaker, so bear with me, folks. this is my lovely wife, barbara. [applause] we have tony, representative tony kurtz, wisconsin state assembly. [applause] of a farmhe owner locally here. [applause] >> and we have my son, cameron, who is our youngest and hopefully will take over for dad soon. [laughter] [applause] mccue,, i have patrick who happens to be my nephew. he's a great farmer and a local

hear from mccue farms. [applause] hoyer, theave kevin owner of hoyer farm locally here. [applause] also carla, who is very close here. not more than a couple of miles. farms andog of their grain service over here. [applause] we want to talk about -- basically what we are here to talk about today is the usmca agreement that was, i guess, implemented here july 1. i must plead a little ignorance on it. ithad to really read up on

myself and i am so confused. there are some questions some folks on the panel have here. i would like to open it up for anyone who has questions they would like to ask the vice president. vice pres. pence: maybe i will make a few comments. orwould like to thank you f inviting me. [applause] thank you so much. thank you for welcoming us to morningstar dairy. i feel right at home. i'm a small town guy from southern indiana. dairyld we didn't have cattle when we were growing up, but we had 100 head of cattle. it is great to be on this wonderful farm. i want to congratulate you for your success. i want to thank all of the great farmers that are gathered around here. i look forward to hearing from you. first and foremost, let me say thank you.

a challenging time in the life of our nation. american farmers came through and kept food on the table, and every american is grateful. [applause] remarkable that literally from the farm to the grocery store, truckers in between, as leading the white house coronavirus task force, i never failed to be inspired at the way american agriculture responded. i want to thank you for that, first and foremost. let me also express appreciation from a friend of mine who's a great admirer of the state of wisconsin and who loves farmers and ranchers all across this country. i bring greetings and gratitude from the 45th president of the united states of america, president donald trump. [applause] we are living in challenging

times, but american farmers have risen to the challenge. you have met this moment and i want to assure you that as the president took action very early on, january and he suspended all travel from china and he stood up the coronavirus task force, and we reinvented testing across the country when we deployed hundreds of millions of supplies that are still being delivered to hospitals, particularly in the sun belt states that are still being impacted. the manufacturer of equipment, ventilators. medicines known as therapeutics that are being distributed around the country today. with american ingenuity and the great pharmaceutical industry that we have, i believe with all my heart before the end of this year, we will have a vaccine and we will put this coronavirus in the past. i truly believe that. [applause] but all of you stepped forward and all of you did what needed to be done to keep food on the table for the american people.

it has been really inspiring for us to watch. i know it has been a challenging time in the midst of this pandemic for american farmers. iterally, the president and witnessed many family farms struggling during this time and it is one of the reasons why the president made more than $19 billion in assistance for farmers, including $9.1 billion that has gone to dairy farms a across the country. while the trade deal that we will talk a bit about today was negotiated before this challenging time, i do see in the usmca president donald trump fights every day for american farmers and american agriculture. [applause] pleased working with the congress. to provideere able support for american families and businesses.

the paycheck protection plan provided more than 86,000 loans, to wisconsin businesses so you can keep employees on the payroll during the difficult days of this pandemic here in the state. i know the paycheck protection plan was able to help morningstar keep your hard-working team on the payroll. we're honored to be a part of it. in the midst of all of that, we are opening up america again. wisconsin is opening up again. i see the enthusiasm as i drove to the farm today. on the strong foundation that first threent, the years that saw the creation of 7 million jobs. we cut taxes, rollback regulations, fought for fair trade. the american economy is already coming back in just the two months of may and june. more than 7 million jobs have been added to this economy.

we lost 22 million at the height of the pandemic. citymerican economy in the and in the farm is coming back in wisconsin and all over america. [applause] it is a testament to the foundation that we formed. a love that verse. if the foundations crumble, how can the righteous stand? it is that foundation of less taxes, less regulation, respect for private property, fighting for free and fair trade which i believe has laid the foundation for the comeback that is underway. you all have been a part of that and i want to promise you we will continue to fight for those things. which i want to say this event is a lot different than the competition. i heard just last week, democratic candidate for joe isesident joe biden proposing $4 trillion in higher taxes. a to trillion dollar version of the green new deal. i have to tell you, the last

thing this economy needs, the last thing this recovery needs is more taxes, more regulation. the last thing we need is joe biden in the white house. [applause] you, the subject of today is the usmca. it is a great win for american agriculture, but i wanted to come to a dairy farm because it has been a great win for dairy. i was literally there every step of the way during the negotiations. when president trump ran and the people of wisconsin put their confidence in this president four years ago, he promised that we would do better. the northought american free trade agreement hadn't put american workers first, hadn't put american farmers first. we rolled our sleeves up and right out of the gate, we started the negotiations. one of the things we learned

early on, in addition to creating incentives to move manufacturing jobs south of the border, we learned about programs, particularly in the dairy industry that were going on in canada that were working against dairy farmers here in wisconsin and all across this country. canada actually had what's called a class six and class seven program that subsidized certain dairy products and literally, i was there. time after time, literally. we were talking about manufacturing jobs, we were talking about exports, but in virtually every conversation. president donald trump told the leadership in canada we have got to fix this trade deal for american dairy, and he did it. he did it. [applause] i'm pleased to report to you that that class six and class c program in candidate will end in

six months. it's off the books. we leveled the playing field for american dairy. [applause] usmca, we predict the u.s. is going to increase our exports by 50,000 metric tons of milk, 12,000 metric tons of cheese, the list goes on. usmca, canada will keep the price of skim milk solid, as high as america's prices. you will maintain a label -- level playing field. this is a win for american workers, farmers and american dairy. howmore example, of president trump puts america first and always will. hear how you are all doing but i would like to mention i was going to go campaigning down in wisconsin earlier today where the

republican party was founded. they were part -- founded in 1854. six years later they were like -- they elected the first republican of the u.s. and four months from now we will reelect when we reelect president trump for four more years in the white house. [applause] farmers, the contest between president trump and joe biden and the liberal agenda could not be more stark. i mentioned this president cut taxes across the board for working families, small businesses and family farms. joe biden wants to raise taxes across the country. this president ended the death tax for virtually every american family farmer. there is joe biden talking about raising taxes by more than hillary clinton ever talked about.

an avalanche of regulations. assault usingt federal red tape on private property rights. i could not be more proud standing among fault -- farmers in the west wing of the white house with president donald trump signing the repeal of the waters of the usa and restored private property rights to american agriculture and america. [applause] the choice has never been have nevere stakes been higher. the president believes in free enterprise and private property and the rule of law, believes in less taxes, free and fair trade, joe biden wants more taxes, more regulation, more economic surrender on the world stage. people of wisconsin new what to what to do in 2016. i believe wisconsin will vote for four more years of president

trump in the white house. [applause] i want to say thank you again. thank you for the resilience and character and strength you have shown not just by the farmers around the state, many of you gathered looking on. i have long believed adversity does not create character. adversity reveals character. the character of the american farmer really shown forth in the last four months. it was the farmers, dairy farmers, production agriculture never stopped. jobs.stopped doing their i think it is one of the reasons why, one of the reasons when i try and read the good book every morning, how often i read about the farmer.

the verses say consider the farmer because the truth is in these last four months and throughout the history of this country it has been the faith and character of the farmer that has been a wellspring of american strength. i want to thank you for your inspiration and your faith. thank you for the way you serve the american people during this trying time and i want to promise you president trump and i and our entire team are going to work our hearts out in the next four months and years to advance the prosperity's and opportunities for every american farmer and rancher. americanake sure agriculture is stronger and more prosperous than ever before. more years of president trump, american agriculture and with these challenging days, someday soon behind us, we will make america great again again.

[applause] with that i would love to hear how everything is going. maybe we could start with if weentative tony kurtz can. tell us how things are here and how we can be more helpful. rep. kurtz: thank you for visiting wisconsin. i have a feeling this is your second home. you are here quite often. i hope the folks understand that you make wisconsin a priority and i know i appreciate that. i mean it when you say -- i say it is your second home. i brought two guests with me. i would be remiss if i did not introduce them. normal incident -- nicole hansen is the vice president of wisconsin is the biggest producer of cranberries. she is the state cranberry guru.

i wanted to give her a big shout out. [applause] the next wonderful farmer is abby joanne erickson. abby jo and her family run a dairy in wisconsin and they milk 150 cows. her and her family hosted the breakfastrm dairy despite all of the troubles, they wanted to have a drive-through dairy breakfast, and they did it. [applause] the next thing i would like to do is to thank president trump and you, sir. part of the cares act provided $16 billion for farmers through the coronavirus from assistance program. the state fsa office, the state has received 412 million dollars

to our farmers. you said something earlier. that has helped our farmers, to stay in business through this crisis. thank you for that. the market facilitation program as well. between those programs, wisconsin has received $1 billion for our farmers. i want to thank you and secretary perdue for your leadership to make sure wisconsin farmers are taken care of. vp pence: thank you so much. rep. kurtz: i talk too much. vp pence: how about a round of applause for your representative? [applause] congress is going to be expressing -- discussing another round of relief and the american farmer will be right and center. the president said we will do whatever it takes to get american families, american businesses and farmers through

this very we will keep that promise. thank you. todd. >> good afternoon, vice president. i would like to thank you for your time and commitment to american agriculture because as farmers we want to produce the safest and best product to feed the world. i guess the only question i have on the usmca is how will the government and sure canada holds up to their end of the trade deal? vp pence: we will make sure canada and mexico live up to it because president trump means business and puts america first. we were in those negotiations. there were several times we brought up the whole issue of dairy. and the president made it clear what was non-negotiable. we were going to level the playing field for american dairy

with canada. canada made the commitment. the best way to make sure that canada holds up their end of the deal is to reelect president trump for four more years because he will hold them to it. [applause] great question. >> thank you for coming and spending time in our great state. my question, mr. vice president, i understand the usmca has guidelines on the codes that are very fluid and flexible. they are a lot more strictly enforced than the other nafta were enforced in the past. as a small business owner that does international trading, this is a bottleneck for my business and it takes another set of facts to deal with these codes so i am wondering what relief will there ever be for other

businesses in wisconsin to get into international business, because that is a huge setback for them to get in? as farmers, they like to do what they are used to. that is a huge hurdle for them to get over, what is that code, how do i know all the regulations? vp pence: let me say first, congratulations on your success and thank you for the work you have done through a challenging time. thanks for noticing i have been in wisconsin a lot. i just feel at home in the midwest. it feels like i get to go home. one of the things i know growing up in indiana is the extraordinary importance of exports to agriculture. the amount of goods that you grow here and you raise here that are exported around the

world is immense. it is one of the reasons why the president renegotiated our trade deal with south korea and came up with the usmca. to your point, we are going to continue to work to streamline regulations on compliance because there is two ways the you.nment and -- can tax they can take their money, and they can tell you how to spend your money through regulations they can create costs on your enterprise that get in the way of opportunities. yesterday on the south lawn of the white house, we were talking about the fact that back in the campaign, the president repealed -- promised we would repeal two regulations for everyone we put on the books. we really did not do that. we repealed eight federal regulations for every new federal rule put on the books. [applause]

it a work in progress. to go into the implementation phase, the usmca came online july 1. we will work with you and others in agriculture in a way that we can streamline and make it more possible to participate in more exploits going forward. ready. i will take that back. my team is here, i will take it back and put it in the mix. this is -- maybe when you have a businessman who becomes president, he walked in the door understanding that the cost of doing business is not just taxes . it is also regulations. that is why we worked hard not to just roll it back but to streamline the process. the president was in georgia two days ago where we have made a tremendous amount of changes that will streamline the construction of roads and bridges and ports and airports

across the country. i will bring that back, i promise you. >> it is an honor to be a part of this roundtable. one of the things that has impressed the administration from the campaign on was his commitment to agriculture, setting up an agricultural committee of real farmers and businesses, many of whom i know. sonny perdue on to richard fordyce, all great people, helped us not only farmers but also agricultural businesses as well. the usmca was a great first step. we appreciate and needed it. there is more to be done. looking around what is happening onagriculture, we need more petition for our dollar. more competition a farmer has for his goods and services, the better off the whole complex is going to be. seeing morerd to

trade agreements coming out from europe, from southeast asia and the others with trade barriers in place. we cannot have a fair, open free market. we won't need to have all the payouts we are getting. that would be michael. -- my goal. my concerns, as these trade agreements are brought forward, is that the value of this, we get money stuck back for infrastructure. aging infrastructure off of the mississippi. the word has been talked about for decades and funding of that program has been lagging over the years and some industries such as farge industry has -- barge industry has stepped up and said we will help. our goods in wisconsin, soybeans

being an example, 50% of those are exported. without rapper transportation we are behind the eight ball -- proper transportation we are behind the eight ball of other countries. how do you see new trade agreements being put together that help not only preserve but improve and bring new infrastructure technologies not only to agriculture but to the onbusinesses that depend both imports and exports of ag products and lumber goods and services? vp pence: thanks for the question and thanks to the compliment about this president's focus on agriculture. secretary sonny perdue, i have to tell you did not grow up on a farm, but most of my best friends did and we had about 100 head of cattle growing up. it was obvious to me in one of our first conversations, when he

was a candidate for president, about the connection he had and the respect and admiration the president has for american farmers and ranchers. he has followed through on it every step of the way and always will, i promise you. two great questions. the usmca is what we call a good start. renegotiated nafta with american jobs and farmers first. we are currently in preliminary discussions with japan, with the european union, and now the u.k. is finishing up brexit, we are beginning to have discussions with them. i was in a meeting earlier this year with the foreign minister of the united kingdom. anxious theyhow were. we will put agriculture at the center of this. we have done it already.

when we took office, half of our international trade deficit was with china. president trump made it clear the era of economic surrender to china is over. we have stood strong against unfair trade practices by china. the president has used tariffs on chinese goods coming into the u.s. to bring china to the table. we did a phase one deal and china is living up to that deal, to the best information that we have. we will continue to stand firm. the president really believes china has got to open up their markets, and i can make you a promise that this president is going to continue to stand strong until china opens up its chinas and also recognizes our nation's

commitment to our highest ideals. the secretary of state gave a speech this week. the attorney general gave a speech. the president has made it clear as china breaks their word on hong kong, we will stand with the people of hong kong. when we see religious oppression against christians and muslims s,re, we will -- muslim uighur we will stand up. we will stand strong on china and work to open up those markets. it has begun to happen but we will continue to stand until the job is done. on infrastructure, if you have not noticed, and the american people elected a builder -- not noticed, the american people elected a builder. no one wanted to build president -- ports and airports, roads and bridges more than president trump. trillionked about a $1

infrastructure bill. we are dealing in congress with a bill that is roughly $500 billion in infrastructure. after the people of wisconsin vote to give president trump four more years, we will build on that start. we recognized that roads mean jobs. i don't mean road jobs. sleepings grown in the -- soybeans grown in the country are exported. you have got to be able to move it, have the infrastructure to do it. i promise you this president, this vice president and our entire team, with regulatory changes we just made so that dollars are made available, or building roads and your -- available, are building roads in a year and a half and not 10 or 15 years. for more years, we will -- four

more years, we will rebuild america. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, mr. vice president pence. today.ate you here i would like to start out with, it is nice to see the improvements of having more accountability and geographical indications of our food and the traceability on it. it is important. i know as a small producer of fresh produce and even larger volume greens it is important to many people what we talked to. it is nice to see more transparency. it would be interesting to see who are the people that are going to be doing the testing, will it be in collaboration with our government officials and independent labs, and people we can follow, find that andrmation fairly easily with that being said, is the standard testing for dairy and

for grains and altered products that we import and export, is it going to be standardized amongst all three countries? vp pence: i think this plan is about leveling the playing field and creating open markets. it is a remarkable thing the strength of the north american economy and unfortunately as the president observed under nafta, we were, america was too often losing out particularly in the area of manufacturing. i love to say out in the midwest we do two things well, we make things and grow things. in indiana, we saw almost the entire communities' factors shuttered, -- factories shuttered, hollowed out. the objective was to level the playing field, to take if it was

intentional or unintentional, but to take the incentive out for businesses to move south in manufacturing by, particularly in automotive, we created a standard where a large percentage of automobiles had to be manufactured what is essentially the average starting wage in the united states. you can't go south of the border to chase cheaper labor per se. it levels it out to business decisions. i promise you the same thing with implementation we will look for ways to standardize and not put an additional burden on dairy farmers or agriculture. we want to grow the american economy first. we want manufacturing and agriculture to grow here, but we understand by strengthening the ability to do business north and south, we will strengthen our economy. as the economy grows stronger we

can compete around the world. i appreciate the question and we will be working on that, i promise you. very good question. i hate to put your son on the spot. [laughter] cameron, how are you doing? >> i am good. vp pence: how do you feel about being in the family farm? your dad hopes you take over someday? >> i think the whole being here, all the new stuff we have implemented in our dairy has made it more efficient. it has made us a lot less time-consuming when it comes to milking cows. to be honest i am hearing more information about the usmca and kind of yield to the rest of the panel, but i'm taking all of this information in an still learning.

[indiscernible] [laughter] i got to meet the vice president, so that is a win. vp pence: thanks. great comment. do you have any comments here? >> i think my son likes to speak about as much as i do, not much. i just really, it is really refreshing to see people that can sit here and discuss issues and do it calmly. it is reassuring that there is hope that we can work our way through this and god be the glory, thank you. [applause] vp pence: let me say to john and barbara and the family and the distinguished leaders gathered around here, thank you for your time here today.

next time we get together, we will hold this roundtable in the cow barn because they said it was cooler over there. i want to thank you all. i speak on behalf of the ,resident when i say once again thank you for the way your character and your faith has shown port. american agriculture delivers for the american people in the trying times through which we have passed and you will keep delivering until we reach that day, someday in the future when the coronavirus is in the past. thank you for what you have done . i want to promise you we will continue to fight for american agriculture, we will continue to make this usmca a win for american farmers here in wisconsin and across this country area with your continued support, -- this country. with your support, we will elect president trump and make america great again again.

thank you all. [applause] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [indiscernible]

[inaudible] >> thanks for coming. appreciate it very much. nice to meet you. thank you so much. >> cranberry. >> cranberry. >> and you had the dairy breakfast? >> yes. it was wonderful. vp pence: thank you, all, for going out -- coming out.

hope we didn't go on too long. is this your family farm? >> incredible. >> john is the baby. vp pence: john is one of 12? >> the seventh boy. >> two boys. ♪ what a beautiful family. i love morningstar. great picture. thank you, all, so much. [applause] ♪ ["the liberty bell march"]

the democratic and republican parties, in the campaign of president trump and joe biden, are adjusting for next month's political conventions. already reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic. the democrats will convene for a scaled-back convention in milwaukee starting august 17. the republicans meet the following week on tuesday, august 20 fifth, in jacksonville, florida. the democratic and republican national convention, live on c-span, beginning monday, august 17. watch any time on c-span.org, or listen live with the free c-span radio app. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. congressionalrst testimony since leaving the federal reserve, former chairs ben bernanke and janet yellen called on congress to take action to encourage economic

recovery. they recommended the issuing of guidelines to curb the spread of the coronavirus, extending unemployment benefits, and providing financial support to state and local governments. they appeared before the house select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis. >> the chair is authorized to declare a recessive the committee at any time. i now recognize myself for an opening statement. before his tenure as fed