Free trade has been receiving a bad rap lately. Barack Obama’s campaign has come out in full force against free trade. In addition to clumsily saying he would unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA (much to the chagrin of Canada and Mexico), during the third presidential debate Obama voiced opposition to the Colombian …
Barack Obama has frequently called the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) “a bad deal.” During one Democratic primary debate, Obama even said he would unilaterally “use the hammer of a potential opt-out” to “renegotiate” the entire treaty. But after he secured the nomination, Obama changed his tune, admitting that …
Responding to Barack Obama’s promise to unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA, President George H.W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Michael Boskin writes in the Wall Street Journal: [S]ince Nafta was passed (relative to the comparable period before passage), U.S. manufacturing output grew more rapidly and reached an all-time high last year; …
No wonder Europe loves Barack Obama: while Obama is promising unilateral withdrawal from NAFTA unless Mexico agrees to new terms to protect U.S. union jobs, the European Union is working to reduce trade barriers with Mexico. The AP reports: The European Union’s executive commission on Tuesday proposed to upgrade ties …
When the Miami Herald‘s Andres Oppenheimer interviewed Mexican President Felipe Calderon last week, he was surprised to hear Calderon defend NAFTA by stressing how abandoning the treaty would hurt the U.S.: Contrary to Obama’s claim that NAFTA has hurt American workers by moving U.S. jobs to Mexico, Calderón said that …
Great new video from reason.tv out today defending NAFTA by making the argument that the threat to American jobs from trade is no different than the threat from better technology. Host Drew Carey quips:”How are we supposed to compete against something that doesn’t get paid, doesn’t get health insurance, and …
Starting today President Bush is hosting the North American Leaders’ Summit summit in New Orleans with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Meanwhile the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates are campaigning in Pennsylvania, a state where both have made promises they would renegotiate NAFTA to better …
The protectionist promises of the two remaining liberal presidential candidates continue to upset our ally to the north. The Toronto Star‘s David Olive reports that Jim Flaherty, the Canadian finance minister, has come close to “recommending a tutorial for the Democratic presidential aspirants.” Olive continues: By Ottawa’s reckoning, NAFTA accounts …
