Canada, Mexico & U.S. have signed a new free trade pact after more than a year of talks to revamp an existing pact.
IMPORTANT POINTS
❖ The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would replaces North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
❖ Canada and the U.S. overcame their differences that covers a region of 500 million residents and conducts about $1 trillion in trade a year.
❖ Canada will now open its dairy market further to U.S. producers, and The US will not change the dispute settlement provisions.
❖ Alongside changes to the dairy market in Canada ,it also includes stronger protections for workers, tough new environmental rules, and updates the trade relationship to cover the digital economy and provides “groundbreaking” intellectual property protections.
❖ It adds provisions to prevent “manipulation” of the trade rules, including covering currency values, and controls over outside countries trying to take advantage of the duty-free market.
Indian origin Gita Gopinath has been appointed chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
IMPORTANT POINTS
❖ She was working as professor at Harvard University. She studied at the Delhi School of Economics holds a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University.
❖ She was previously working as a co-director of the International Finance and Macroeconomics Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
❖ Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had served as Chief Economist of the IMF.