Obama Knocks Clinton, But Wouldn't Ax NAFTA

 

Obama: NAFTA Repeal 'Would Actually Result in More Job Loss ... Than Job Gains'

By JAKE TAPPER

 

Appealing to union voters in a dry wall manufacturing plant in this crucial primary state, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Sunday afternoon said that even though he has repeatedly said the passage of NAFTA was bad for the country, he would not try to repeal it.

 

"I don't think its realistic for us to repeal NAFTA," he said during a town hall meeting on the economy.

 

He argued arguing that because the trade deal had been passed more than a decade ago, it was entrenched in the economy, and any attempt to repeal it "would actually result in more job loss ... than job gains."

 

In the fierce fight for votes here in Ohio, where NAFTA is not popular among many blue collar Democrats, Obama has repeatedly attacked Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for the trade deal pushed by President Bill Clinton and passed in Congress in November 1993.

"Yesterday [Saturday], [Clinton] said NAFTA was 'negotiated' by the first President Bush, not by her husband," Obama said today. "But let's be clear: It was her husband who got NAFTA passed. In her own book, Sen. Clinton called NAFTA one of Bill's successes."

 

Obama also relayed to the very small crowd at the National Gypsum plant a number of quotes from Clinton he said indicated she had praised the trade agreement -- including one from 2004, when she allegedly said, "I think, on balance, NAFTA has been good for New York and America."

Said Obama, "One million jobs have been lost because of NAFTA, including nearly 50,000 jobs here in Ohio. And yet, 10 years after NAFTA passed, Sen. Clinton said it was good for America. Well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America -- and I never have."

Saturday, Clinton took issue with an Obama mailer being distributed in the Buckeye State that included a quote implying that Clinton had described NAFTA as "a boon" to the economy.

 

The quote actually was from New York Newsday, which had characterized Clinton's views as considering NAFTA a boon though Clinton herself had never made such a remark.

Clinton biographers Sally Bedell Smith and Carl Bernstein have reported that as first lady, Clinton opposed NAFTA behind the scenes.

 

 

Obama On Nafata, Cafta and Shafta:

Associated Press: Obama said the United States should 'pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.' "Obama said the United State should continue to work with the World Trade Organization and pursue deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement." [AP, 9/8/04]

Decatur Herald & Review: 'Obama said the United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA.' "While some people believe NAFTA has been good for U.S. farmers, the trade results could have been better, Keyes said. NAFTA negotiators said the United States might lose manufacturing jobs but would become a service economy, but now those service jobs also are being exported, he said. Obama said the United States benefits enormously from exports under the WTO and NAFTA. He said, at the same time, there must be recognition that the global economy has shifted, and the United States is no longer the dominant economy. 'We have competition in world trade,' Obama said. 'When China devalues its currency 40 percent, we need to bring a complaint before the WTO just as other nations complain about us. If we are to be competitive over the long term, we need free trade but also fair trade." [Decatur Herald & Review, 9/9/04]

 

 

  

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