USMCA looks a lot like NAFTA: Hayes

December 11, 2019
News

Dr. Dermot HayesDermot Hayes, professor was quoted in a Dec. 10 Quad-City Times story, "Ag community hopeful USMCA trade deal developments lead to bill signing."

Dermot Hayes, a finance professor in agribusiness at Iowa State University in Ames, said the USMCA deal could come weeks after the U.S. signed a new trade deal with Japan.

“We’ve done it with Japan. I hope we do it with Vietnam as the opportunities there are enormous,” he said of other trade deals. “Getting more stability into the market is good; however, we still have the problem with China.”

Hayes also said the USMCA “looks remarkably like” the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. USMCA would replace the 25-year-old NAFTA.


Hayes also commented on the looming Dec. 15 trade deadline in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war:

“If we don’t get (a trade deal) done by Dec. 15, it will get very scary,” Hayes said. “We have a deadline we have to impose new tariffs on them by Dec. 15. We delayed them because we did not want to upset Christmas shoppers.” "The likelihood of something being signed between now and Dec. 15 is, as of Tuesday afternoon, unknown. I’ve been surprised every leg of this arrangement. The common sense answer never seems to be the one. I have no idea, and I don’t think anyone does,” Hayes said.

 

 

News Type: 
Category: