Talking NAFTA

Talking NAFTA

Roadell Hickman/The Plain Dealer.

There has to be serious questions asked about whether this is the best and the strongest course for the American people when you consider the weight already placed on them in this economic climate with the price of oil rising.

By Citizen Correspondent Wyatt McIntyre

Date Posted: 06/11/08

Reader Rating:

Standing on free trade…Considering the electoral math there can be little doubt that the more time that passes during this election cycle the more the voters are going to hear about the North American Free Trade Agreement, the more they are going to hear the rhetoric and the more the candidates are going to end up talking about it’s implications.

With the Democratic Primaries now over and the speeches shifting from the debates between New York Senator Hillary Clinton and Illinois Senator Barack Obama about who will truly renegotiate the terms of the trade pact and who is secretly meeting with whom in order to renege on that commitment to the ideological differences between presumptive Republican Nominee Senator John McCain and his Democratic opponent it has already begun.

Taking Senator Obama to task yesterday, the Arizona Senator spoke to NAFTA, making a direct hit against his principle rival in the November election, as he stated “If I am elected president, this country will honor its international agreements, including NAFTA, and we will expect the same of others… And in a time of uncertainty for American workers, we will not undo the gains of years in trade agreements now awaiting final approval.”

But McCain isn’t talking about it alone. With his speech came an almost immediate response from freshman Illinois Congressman Phil Hare, “By every objective account, NAFTA has been an abysmal failure… Despite this failed record, Senator McCain continues to be one of NAFTA’s top cheerleaders.