Current Affairs Question - 04 February 2020

Explanation :

• Rakhigarhi, a Harappan site, is a village located in Hisar District of Haryana. The site is located in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain, some 27 km from the seasonal Ghaggar River.
• It is the site of a pre-Indus Valley Civilisation settlement going back to about 6500 BCE.
• Later,the archaeological excavations revealed the mature Harappan phase represented by planned township having mud-brick as well as burnt-brick houses with a proper drainage system.
• It is the largest Indus Valley Civilization site in the Indian subcontinent, twice the size of Mohenjo-daro.
• In May 2012, the Global Heritage Fund, declared Rakhigarhi one of the 10 most endangered heritage sites in Asia. It found out that the villagers sell the artefacts they dig out of the site and parts of site are now being encroached by private houses.

Explanation :

• The North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is a trade pact signed by the U.S.A, Canada and Mexico, which made it easier for companies in those three countries to move goods and supplies across North America’s borders.
• The agreement took effect on January 1, 1994, and essentially eliminated tariffs on most goods traded among the three nations.
• The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) is an updated version of the nearly 25-year-old, trillion-dollar North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). It includes major changes on cars and new policies on labor and environmental standards, intellectual property protections, and some digital trade provisions.
• The USMCA was proposed by United States President Donald Trump and was signed by President Trump, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on November 30, 2018 as a side event of the 2018 G20 Summit in Buenos Aires.