Welcome to Access ProRata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the collision of tech, business, and politics.

I'm Dan Pramack. On today's show, D.C. turns its attentions to kid tech, and Elon Musk hits the stand.

But first, the future of free trade.

So when President Trump isn't tweeting about how Democrats are engaged in a witch hunt against him,

he's tweeting about how Democrats are refusing to pass something called the USMCA,

a giant trade bill with Mexico and Canada that's designed to replace NAFTA.

So three things to know about the USMCA.

First, Trump is right about Democrats refusing to pass it, at least so far.

Nancy Pelosi has indicated a willingness to eventually bring a vote, but first has been

engaged in months and months of negotiations with the White House over increasing the

agreements environmental and labor enforcement provisions. And then yesterday, she added a request that in clause about extending U.S. online content protections

be stripped from the final bill, in part because she might want to have them repealed stateside as well.

Number two, what Trump doesn't mention is that Mexico is also balking a bit.

Yeah, the Mexican Senate voted to ratify USMCA over the summer, but in Mexico that was

more a starting point than an endpoint, and it is concerned particularly about some of

the changes requested by Democrats.

Number three, USMCA is long, with lots of provisions, but like NAFTA, it's mostly about

ensuring the free flow of goods between the three countries.

Big changes from NAFTA are rules around autos, particularly in terms of minimum wages for workers and the originating source of components,

rules around dairy, with U.S. farmers getting more access to the Canadian market, and rules around intellectual property,

including longer protections on branded

drugs from generic competition.

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