In less than 10 weeks from now, the United States will vote to elect a new government for the next four years or re-elect the Trump administration for a second term.
Former vice president and Democratic Party’s presidential candidate Joe Biden and current US president and Republican opponent Donald Trump have raised the stakes as the nation goes to polls on November 3.
While the president’s party concluded the scaled-down Republican National Convention on Thursday, the Democratic Party wrapped up its event last week by officially nominating Biden for the post of president and Kamala Harris for vice president.Here’s what the two candidates battling to become the president of the world’s largest economy have done or have offered to do on winning 2020 polls and how it’ll impact the world
Employment
President Donald Trump has vowed to “prohibit” American companies from replacing local workers with lower-cost foreign workers, a key fallout of outsourcing, and continue his hardline position on immigration.
We have to win. This is the most important election in the history of our country,” he said. His “Fighting for You” agenda also promises to “end reliance” on China by encouraging American firms to bring back operations and continue the “America First” foreign policy.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, has promised to reform the temporary visa system to bring high-skilled employees and establish a wage-based allocation process and establish enforcement mechanisms to ensure they are aligned with the labour market and not used to undermine wages.
In his nomination acceptance speech, Biden said, “Just judge this president on the facts. More than 50 million people have filed for unemployment this year. More than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one in 6 small businesses has closed this year.”Since he’s “done it before,” Biden says he will rebuild the economy like he did when it was on the verge of collapse in 2009. In an outreach video, the Democratic Party said, back then Biden led the largest stimulus in a generation and saved millions of jobs.While Biden says he would shut down the country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, if experts and scientists suggested so, Trump has ordered reopening in phases to bring the economy back on track.
“Rebuilding our economy starts with fighting the virus, increasing testing, getting more protective gear for health care workers and calling for mask mandates nationwide,” the Democratic Party said in a campaign video shared through the former vice president’s Twitter handle.
The video comes at the time when there are 5,961,581 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country and the toll stands at 182,779, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s tally.
As the cases continued to grow at a rapid pace, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), facing pressure from the Trump administration, last week gave emergency approval for use of plasma therapy to treat seriously affected patients.
The announcement came on the eve of the Republican National Convention, where Trump was nominated to lead his party for four more years, raising suspicions that the move was politically motivated to offset critics of the president’s handling of the pandemic.
The FDA chief Stephen Hahn, however, later apologised for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating Covid-19 patients with convalescent plasma.
Also, while many countries have made it compulsory for citizens to use face masks as a precautionary measure against the virus, the president has neither mandated nor is he himself seen using one on most occasions.
Ties with WHO
Alleging the World Health Organization’s (WHO) mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis and its role in “a conspiracy to cover up for China”, US president Donald Trump has halted the nation’s contributions to the UN health body.
Though the administration had earlier said it was considering numerous proposals, there is no final word yet on restoring full or partial funding to the WHO.
Biden has so far not announced his action plan on the future ties with the WHO. However, he has been pushing for the guidelines provided by the UN body like wearing face masks to prevent coronavirus from spreading.
US-India relations
There are nearly 1.2 million Indian-American voters in the US. Recently, the Trump campaign released a video titled ‘Four More Years’ featuring clips showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the ‘Howdy Modi’ event in Texas last year and the US President ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Ahmedabad this February.
“America enjoys a great relationship with India and our campaign enjoys great support from Indian Americans!,” the tweet alongside the video read.During a bilateral meeting with ‘friend’ PM Modi earlier this year, President Trump also assured of a trade deal very soon.
Biden too has pledged closer ties with India and a better deal for Indian-Americans saying he will stand with New Delhi in confronting “new threats its faces in its own region and along its own border.”
He has also promised to end the temporary suspension of H-1B visas to ensure American have the first crack at jobs. The visa programme, of which Indians are the largest beneficiaries, has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s immigration hawks.
Also, Democrat Kamala Harris is the first Indian American and Black woman — actually, the first woman of colour — to be fielded for the second highest political office in the US by a major political party.
US-China tensions
Since Trump took office, relations between the US and China have spiraled down. Despite reaching an agreement on Phase 1 of a trade deal, the difference between the two countries has only widened.
The president’s criticism for China has only increased after the first case of coronavirus was reported from Wuhan in December last year and has now taken over the world. Since then, Trump has time and again categorically blamed the “Chinese virus” and omissions by China’s regime for its spread.
Also, after India banned 59 Chinese apps over security concerns, China’s TikTok also came on Trump’s radar following which he has ordered the video app’s parent company to sell its US operations to an American company within 90 days if the application isn’t banned.
Though Biden has not made his stand clear on how he will lead ties with China if elected president, several Democrats have backed Trump’s move to ban Chinese apps.
Biden has also promised to work with India in the Indo-Pacific to ensure no country, including China, “is able to threaten its neighbours with impunity” and will have “no tolerance” for cross-border terrorism in South Asia.