Trumps agrees to renegotiate NAFTA
Trump tweeted about NAFTA to his 28.3 million followers last week, saying that he “received calls from the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate.” Trump says he agreed to renegotiate. During his campaign, Trump strongly opposed this agreement because of its effects on employment in the United States. Trump followed his initial tweet with another, saying that he does not believe NAFTA is currently a fair deal. It is unclear what Trump will do if a ‘fair deal’ is not reached by all parties during negotiation.
United Airlines: Can the company regain its customers’ trust?
United Airlines is working to regain the trust of its customers after a video of a passenger being dragged off of a United flight because of overbooking went viral. United is implementing a new approach to solving overbooking conflicts in response to the outrage millions showed on social media. To start, $10,000 compensation is being given to all members of the Chicago flight. Long term changes include that seated passengers now have to leave voluntarily, law enforcement officers will no longer be able to remove passengers from flights unless a safety issue occurs, crews will be booked on flights ahead of time and crew members will receive situational training.
Trump proposes a new tax plan
The Trump administration revealed a tax plan with significantly lower tax rates and fewer tax breaks last Wednesday. The one-page bulleted outline of changes in tax code will affect almost all Americans. The most noteworthy of Trump’s proposed changes are “to replace the seven income tax brackets with three new ones, cut the corporate tax rate by more than 50 percent, abolish the alternative-minimum tax and estate tax and create new incentives to simplify filing returns.” So far, the White House has not answered any questions regarding the changes or elabo- rated on what effects they think the new tax code will have on the U.S. White House staff members have explained that their goal is to create immediate economic growth.
United States and North Korea
The United States will be tightening sanctions on North Korea with the aim to pressure the country to end its nuclear weapon programs. Last Wednesday, President Trump, his national security team and U.S. senators met to discuss relations with North Korea. The U.S. believes North Korea’s pursuit of nuclear weapons is a national security threat. However, the U.S. is willing to negotiate with North Korea. North Korea responded to the U.S.’s stance by saying that they are capable of reacting with a nuclear war. The U.S.’s strategy remains unclear, but both the discussion of increasing defense capabilities in Hawaii and of a peace process with North Korea have occurred.