on u.s. and hong kong relations. at 1:00, the house judiciary committee considers obstruction charges against the president concerning robert mueller's investigation. they have subpoenaed former officials and former white house software rob porter. ducey wasvernor doug joined by tom donohue and neil brown the for a news conference and the need to ratify the trade agreement, often return to -- referred to. this is just over 30 minute. many -- good morning, ladies and gentlemen. thank you for coming. 20 year the chamber brings together the top chamber

executives from around the country to talk about our shared priorities and how we can best leverage the power of our whole federation. it is our partnership with these organizations that give the neighbor amy -- the region a neighbor -- nationwide reach. this meeting comes at an important time for the business in arizona to new york and elsewhere in between. there are growing questions about the strain and direction of our economy. uncertainty stemming from the u.s. china trade tensions, various international hotspots, the softening global economy and warming -- warning signs are making people nervous, and when people get nervous, they said on their money. a lot of companies are sitting

on the cash, resulting in the first decline in business investment in three years. individual investors are doing the same thing. the business community is calling on leaders in washington to make smart policy choices that will over store confidence, not just undermine it. here are three quick things that could take a positive difference. resolving trade tensions with china is critical to restoring business certainty and keeping our economy on track. we send a business delegation to beijing prior to the administration's announcement that it would delay the last round of tariffs for a few weeks. it is a tradition that we have been following for a long time, two major business meetings between the chamber and china

business leaders, and government officials, each year, and the conversations were positive. however much more work, as ambassador light hauser told us in the other room, to be done. the chamber continues to work with leaders and american business leaders to move in the right direction. thing, we have an opportunity to finally do something about infrastructure. a bipartisan group of senators half of anh infrastructure bill. it will give you roads, bridges and get going on it right now, going to require some quick movement before the end of

the year. committee that the that took this up unanimously, all democrats and republicans voted for it, and i am hopeful that we can sneak this under the finish line. let me get to the immediate will, congress should and pass the mexico canada agreement. of thell, before the end year, eliminating any questions with the future of trade our largest trading partners, canada and mexico. i mentioned a few minutes ago that bob might hauser spoke to our group of chamber executives from around the country, and he and i are seeing the same song. betterng it in a much way than i did.

we have been working closely with him and the administration to advance the shared priority for a long time. more than 450, association, ,.cal chambers in letter thatgn included more than 600 businesses, agricultural association and chambers of commerce, representing all 50 state. during the recess, we followed lawmakers home, holding more than 90 in district events with members of congress, and since the beginning of the year, we have held 740 meetings with and/or theirngress staffs.

a lot is at stake. you will hear more on that from others appeared. working together with the chamber federation and getting to the point where we get adequate numbers of democrats who are making the right noises and the right commitments to make this go is very important to us. supporters isat governor doug ducey who is here with us today. we will keep the pressure on together until this job gets done and he is closest to the action, right next to mexico. you to tom donahue and everybody at the chamber for hosting the important discussion . it was a privilege to be here this morning and to have the

opportunity to speak to representatives a few moments ago. , america andnkly arizona's this is are beyond ready to ratify. canada is mexico and vital to the economy and it supports more than 228,000 jobs. passed china to become america's number one trading partner. arizona's largest trading partner. times four of any other affiliation. canada is the number three trading partner. it is critical to other states as well. our country has a once in a generation opportunity to take

our trade relationships to an entirely new level. recent months, mexico's ambassador to the u.s. spoke loudly and clearly in a panel in arizona where she said, if you care about mexico, you will be a yes. i could not agree more. if we care about mexico and canada, if we care about u.s. it., we will ratify i am grateful that in arizona, are of our united senators a yes, and four of our nine members of congress currently support the trade deal, but we need everybody else to get on board. we launched a new website that people can visit and make their voices heard.

this website has trade facts and resources for every state in the country, and i want to encourage everyone across the country to reach out to their members of to demandnd feel free from them that they publicly support the ratification. now is the time, and with everybody's help, i know that we can get this done. now to someone who will understand better than anyone else he will meet. the arizona chamber of commerce. take away. governor, tom donahue. the major reasons why we need to move it over the finish line right now, from the perspective community, it is hard to think of an issue that

has brought the business community together in a more united fashion. economy, sector of the tourism, mining, manufacturing, technology, we have an emerging, high-tech sector and auto that is highly dependent on a supply chain with sonora. there was a press conference with the governor of sonora in arizona to announce a major manufacturing electric vehicle plant. one of the major reasons was because of the auto supply chain in sonora. ducey'sgovernor leadership, we participated in a study and 228,000 jobs rely on trade with mexico and canada. of thelook at some

independent studies, if we are able to get them over the line, a modernization of the existing agreement, it has brand-new , smalls in e-commerce and medium enterprises. past 250,000well and would hit digit thousand jobs and not too distant time. just as the business community ,s united behind ratification the governor also missed -- mentioned something important in terms of the importance of mexico and canada.

the way it was negotiated, it deserved the same strong bipartisan majority in both houses of congress. i final point is that the support you see in arizona among the business community, thanks to the ship of tom donahue, it is across the country. the letter alluded to, many and representatives of businesses from all over the country. whether it is you are on the border of arizona like we are where you are on the border of canada, like my colleague from new york. is incredibly important to your economy. with that, i would like to hand over the microphone to my colleague, heather.

you for including me in this very important issue. new york state, unbeknownst to me is a large agricultural state, one of the largest in the country, and we have quite a bit of manufacturing. relationships, we export over $18 million worth of goods. 15.5 billion dollars of that is with canada, so canada is the largest and most important trading partner. this agreement, if it is it will improve our trading relationship with canada and actually result in updating with huge improvements, particularly with agricultural trade. we believe this is critically

important and this relationship provides over 100 jobs. we think that number will grow. we have urged our delegation, along with a number of other supportes to show their for usmca so that it can actually take effect. thank you. >> will open up the floor to questions and i would ask that you identify yourself and your news organization. >> this will be for doug ducey or glenn, or both. you noted that five of your delegation and the house have not yet publicly supported usmca. when you talk to these congress people, what did they say are the barriers to getting them on board?

did you hear anything about meeting those issues? >> first, i am grateful for the people have gotten on board. and themcsally discussions i have had with other congresspeople that have not come out publicly in the affirmative is that they need to do more homework, they need more questions answered. once they understand that this is not only critical to the u.s. economy, but how much arizona's economy depends upon it and the final, closing message that if you care about mexico, you will be yes on usmca. it should be enough to get nine. past,n the original nafta we had a bipartisan delegation and every mover -- member voted

for it. every member should vote for this agreement. the arizona chamber will be on the hill in a few days, making another push with some of the members who have not yet come out in favor. said -- hecey correctly quotes the ambassador that if you care about the economy of mexico, you will vote for usmca. economy of about the the u.s., you will vote for it. >> he sits in the opposite party. he was the former mayor of phoenix. mayor stanton and i did a

mission to mexico together. arizonans and discussing the importance to the state of arizona and the u.s. economy. i am grateful for that. with thelynch washington post. did you get any clarity from ambassador lighthizer on how the democrats concerns over labor and enforcement issues might be resolved? can he be at all anymore specific on when you think the house in particular might take up the agreement? ambassador lighthizer had the same question. himi am not going to quote because i talked to him about it all the time. this is how it looks to me.

right now, we have enough goats with mechanics and republican, that we could pass the bill, but make it a passage that will stand for a long period of time without challenge, to make it comfortable for those courageous ,nough in a democratic party some of them very publicly, their support, it is necessary to get another group of votes from the party. right now, there are discussions between the ambassador, nancy pelosi and other leaders of the democratic party. he said from the beginning that this deal will not work without democratic support. there are two or three little issues. every agreement has a few adjustment. adjustments that the chamber

absolutely supports. i have spoken at length to the speaker on this and i believe this will get done in a timely basis. what is timely? everybody would like it to be sent up at the end of this month and run in the next weeks after that. cannot promise that because there are so many other things going on, but i believe long before we start looking at the holidays, that we will have this thing done. of ais not just based off thought that i came up with in the middle of the night. it is something that makes you hope. as you know better than anybody else, objectives slide a little, but we will get it done. do you want to add something to that?

>> the financial times. this is a question for mr. donahue. since this is a tough vote for many democrats, i know you are targeting centrist mcgrath, are you planning to support them with an endorsement at the next congressional election next year? is that endorsement going to be a question mark for many members? i have a quick macro questions. how concerned are you about the spike in oil prices over the weekend and instability in the middle east? those are two good questions and i want to say something quickly about each of them. votes by members of the democratic party, for endorsements in the next election, it will certainly be

in our mind, but i will tell you this, anybody in the democratic party that is attacked in election time, because of a vote in this agreement, i will ways,ally, any number of make it clear to their potential voters, exactly how important it was for the country, on their bill. i have made this clear to a lot of people. i do not think that there are a lot of people in the other party who will criticize them for voting for something that they want. anything else on that? have made it very clear to republicans and mcgrath on capitol hill that it is impossible to see how you can be pro-business and pro-economic growth.

issues,e a lot of other but you cannot reconcile being progrowth and pro-business if you are against the usmca. toare paying close attention those in stanton coming out early. of his colleagues sent a letter to the eager. being an early supporter and helping to build momentum for this is worth a lot more to the chamber and business community and being the 270th vote after it is already past. >> on the question of oil prices , obviously, the tragic certain over the saudi arabia, last numbers of days have given

people posit and questioning what is going to happen to oil prices. a lot of things have happened since then. ability toses the provide half of the finished product that it has been providing before this attack, it is going to move up oil prices. we have seen that a little bit , president trump to indicated the willingness deal with national oil reserves, to balance some of that. toers will move together produce more as necessary. wille next few days, we have a much better feeling about how long it will take for the

saudi to get their system up and it isagain, and i think going to have others being very careful and more alert to protecting their resources. i think that we will be all right. is the largest producer now, collectively, with canada and mexico, we are very significant. we could be helpful in this beyond what others are used to. i am from bloomberg news. you talked about getting a new group of democrats. whatder if you identified defines that group, how much progress you made over the recess and getting them on board and who that group would be. >> i will not single out any member of congress who does not

want to single themselves out. we are having quite productive conversations with democratic agitating toare get done, but also with members who have not come out publicly. they are looking for more information and finality. i will say is i think there is an appreciation among members of both parties on the importance of this in a townip, and where a lot of things can get caught up in politics, this is one of those things that we cannot afford to get caught up in politics. that is reassuring as we work to build momentum. >> i have a hunch that you were as interested in what we had to say months ago when we were

circumstanceste where members of the democratic becomewhere they may not the greatest supporters of things that we are advocating, it would help to get things to be considered, help stop things that made no sense, so we have been having extraordinary ,eetings with new democrats with long serving democrats, they have been helpful. i suspect you will find a balanced approach as a result of that, and i feel very good about it. , you would have a much better story if we told you about all the people you could call up, but i think our credibility on this is pretty good. we are having a lot of meetings with the right people and i feel good about it.

>> i want to go back to a prior question because i was not sure what the answer was. era --e members of the arizona house delegation have not come out public. -- specific pacific concerns or objections. got questionsu about the mid-level talks supposed to take place this month with negotiators and specifically, where other talks going to start? are they shrinking the areas that they are going to cover? >> i would direct you to members of congress that have not come out public, so that they can speak for themselves. the conversations i have had with them, i have been around and they want to do more

homework, understand the details , how it affects labor and in mexico, those kinds of comments and learned can easily be answered with a little diligence .nd time spent with bill more generalities, the bill has not been presented on the floor, as well. before, wendicated have had lots of conversations with other democrat, and i think with your help, to help you, i think the big questions are the two or three things that ambassador lighthizer is , andssing with the speaker among that, how can you assure that the agreement would be enforceable? a generalere is

agreeing. i think we will begin to see more public voices. said aboutbassador that --a discussion was i will give you a fact and then a little bit of color. that his staff and the meet thisaff would the weekend and half that the senior negotiators would come together. he rated out by saying this is an extraordinary challenge and when it all fell apart some months ago, they were very close

to a workable agreement, an agreement that does not take care of intellectual property and does not pay attention to the questions of equal opportunity, to participate in similar industries, and a host of other things that you are very well informed about. then, it will be hard to get a full agreement. he did indicate that there is movement in the direction of purchasing of agricultural products and other issues. i thought it was an extraordinary exchange and while i am optimistic about it, i am also a realist. this is not a simple problem. >> i am with politico.

on china again, there has been typeabout a preliminary deal as a confidence builder. is that something that concerns the chamber in terms of reaching a real resolution to the underlying issues on intellectual property? what can you say? did the ambassador say anything about a more intermediate deal in the next couple of weeks? >> i would say that he did not. he was pretty clear that we have to do this one step at a time, but this has to be a real agreement. say, and all the negotiations i have ever participated in, the best opportunity comes when both sides have deep, serious, real

a casual lookhink at the realities in china and here suggest that for political reasons, economic reasons, for avoidance of serious economic problems in the future, it is in the best interest of both countries to make a real agreement, and we are hopeful that we will have the opportunity to move in that direction. >> and you all and thank you to our guests. if you have follow-up questions, .all the median line have a great week.

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iowa for life campaign 2020 coverage of the polk county democrat annual steak fry. candidates will take the stage for speeches. onch the annual steak fry c-span, c-span.org orbited on the free c-span radio app. live tuesday on c-span, the u.s. house returns at 12:00 p.m. eastern for general ages. at 2:00 p.m., the house except child t-bills and a motion to instruct negotiators for talks with the senate on defense authorization. c-span two, the u.s. senate returns at 10:00 a.m. eastern for more work on executive nominations. at 7:15, they will host a spelling bee. c-span3, a forum

on the future of u.s. hong kong relations. at 1:00, the house judiciary committee there is obstruction charges against the president were influence on robert mueller's investigation. they have subpoenaed former officials and former white house staffer, rob porter. monday, president trump awarded the medal of freedom to retired new york yankees pitcher. this is 20 minutes. ♪