Today’s Free Trade Fact of the Day comes from Ohio native and U.S. Chamber of Commerce VP for international affairs Daniel Christman who writes in the Cincinnati Enquirer: Facts are stubborn things, and so it is with trade in general and the North American Free Trade Agreement in particular. Contrary to what some of the candidates are saying, Ohio is benefiting from trade and from NAFTA in extraordinary ways, and no one more than the state’s manufacturers. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, 55 percent of all Ohio exports …
As Michael Gerson points out today, if his promises are worth anything, Barack Obama’s first 100 days will include “arm-twisting Mexico and Canada into a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.” In yesterday’s International Herald Tribune, American University Center for North American Studies director Robert Pastor defended NAFTA from the latest liberal protectionist rhetoric: NAFTA’s goals were to reduce and eventually eliminate trade and investment barriers, and it did that. From 1993 to 2006, trade among the United States, Mexico and Canada tripled – from $289 billion to …
Since Hillary Clinton appears to owe a big part of her victory in Ohio to capitalizing on anti-free trade sentiment in Ohio, we are all but guaranteed to endure another seven weeks on anti-trade rhetoric before the April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. To counteract progressive fearmongering on trade, we offer you today’s NAFTA Myth of the Day courtesy of Heritage’s own Ambassador Terry Miller: According to reports issued last month by the Department of Commerce, the U.S. economy grew by 50 percent during NAFTA’s first 13 years. Contrary to Perot’s gloomy …
With the leading presidential candidates doubling down on their anti-trade promises, it is important that the facts about the benefits of trade are repeated as often as possible to counter their deceitful populist rhetoric. Today’s ‘NAFTA Myth of the Day’ comes courtesy of Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies director Daniel Griswold. Griswold wrote last week: Ohio workers would pay a heavy price for pulling out of NAFTA. Canada and Mexico are the top two markets for exports from Ohio, accounting for more than half of the state’s exports …
Promises by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to threaten Canada with unilateral rescission of NAFTA are not going over well up north. During the Democratic debate Tuesday night Hillary Clinton said she would tell Canada and Mexico: “We will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it and we renegotiate on terms that are favorable to all of America.” Obama chimed in: “I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right.” Canada is taking those unilateral threats seriously and has warned theU.S. that access to its oil and …
The Wall Street Journal opined today: Democrats claim the world hates America because President Bush has behaved like a global bully. But we don’t recall him ever ordering an ally to rewrite an existing agreement on American terms — or else. Yet that’s exactly what both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are now promising to do to our closest neighbors, Mexico and Canada. At their Ohio debate on Tuesday, first Mrs. Clinton, followed ever so quickly by Mr. Obama, pledged to pull America out of the North American Free Trade …
Liberals have always believed that higher taxes are great for the U.S. economy and both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama promise to raise taxes as soon as they enter office. But back when the best hope for liberal causes came out of Arkansas and not Illinois, it was consensus in some liberal circles that trade liberalization was essential for our nation’s economic growth. Now that there is a contested primary underway, however, liberals now all believe that free trade is the greatest threat to American jobs there is today. So …
