More NAFTA Nonsense

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An Incomplete Quote
Obama's mailer goes on to ask, "Is Hillary Clinton running away from her own record on trade deals that have cost Ohio nearly 50,000 jobs?" It then lists various quotes from Clinton on NAFTA, the most recent of which is a truncated version of the senator's remarks. The mailer quotes Clinton saying in Jan. 2004, "I think on balance NAFTA has been good for New York and America." As we said previously, the full context of those remarks, made in response to questions in a news teleconference, shows that Clinton advocated revisiting and renegotiating trade agreements. In that teleconference, she said she "always thought" that old trade agreements should be revisited and that environmental, health and labor standards should be added. "I think that we need a re-thinking of our trade policies," she said.

The Clinton campaign has sent out its own misleading mailer on NAFTA, trying to convince Ohio voters that Obama has praised the trade agreement in the past. Campaign rhetoric aside, the two candidates' positions on NAFTA are virtually the same.

Reprinted with permission from Factcheck.org

Sources
Scott, Robert E. "NAFTA's Legacy: Rising trade deficits lead to significant job displacement and declining job quality for the United States."(Chapter 2 of "Revisiting NAFTA Still not working for North America's workers.")

Economic Policy Institute, 28 Sept. 2006.

Hufbauer, Gary Clyde and Schott, Jeffrey J. "NAFTA Revisited: Achievements and Challenges." Institute for International Economics, Oct. 2005: 84.

J.F. Hornbeck. "NAFTA at Ten: Lessons from Recent Studies." Congressional Research Service, 13 Feb. 2004.

Audley, John J., et. al. "NAFTA's Promise and Reality: Lessons from Mexico for the Hemisphere." Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2004.

Chapman, Steve. "Democratic myths collide with reality of NAFTA." Chicago Tribune, 28 Feb. 2008.

"Fact Check: Clinton, Obama and NAFTA." Associated Press, 26 Feb. 2008.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Total Nonfarm employment, seasonally adjusted. 1994 – 2008, 3 March 2008.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Manufacturing employment, seasonally adjusted. 1994 – 2008, 3 March 2008.

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Posted By: checkmate @ 03/17/2008 3:15:07 PM

NAFTA has resulted in an increase in Exports and the Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization has resulted in the exodus of US plant and equipment to China . The Jobs were given to China to exploit the cheaper wages paid to factory workers. A huge trade deficit with China followed and that where we stand today. Please get your Economics right! This is a government run by and for Corporate America. So what's new about that dumcoffs?
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Posted By: ervinst@hotmail.com @ 03/13/2008 9:26:30 AM

Seems that Naftahad its problems to start with and rather than address them before it was passed the protection of the major companies that would benifit from it had more say than the people of this country. Looking back and seeing it was not put together weel to start with seems wrong to me. Just who do our elected officials work for anyway. Us or big business?
Clinton is or was more of a corporate lawyer..not one out on the streets where life really is . Her actions do not seem to me to be in real favor of the people...how can they be when she backs big business?
It would be nice to see the reporters both for newspapers and on TV asking exactly what her record is...and backing it up with facts, not just words with no meaning as we have been hearing so far.
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Posted By: metzlerd @ 03/08/2008 10:30:19 AM

Yes it would, but the press is too concerned about "vetting" anybody except Clinton. Whitewater gives her a free pass. In other words, look at the shiny object.