Posted on 03/11/2008 9:33:27 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain criticized his Democratic rivals on Tuesday for pledging to renegotiate a hemispheric trade treaty that Democrats blame for U.S. manufacturing job losses.
At a town-hall meeting in St. Louis, the Arizona senator also called for the Democratic-controlled U.S. Congress to approve a free-trade treaty with Colombia that is being stymied on Capitol Hill.
"On trade, I'm a free trader," McCain told employees at Savvis Internet company, a session dominated by questions about the ailing U.S. economy.
McCain, the likely Republican nominee to run in the November election, is spending the week hop-scotching across several states raising money for his cash-strapped campaign ahead of a trip to the Middle East and Europe next week.
McCain, going to Jerusalem, London and Paris as part of a congressional delegation, said he would talk to NATO allies about Afghanistan and the need to do a better job in fighting the return of the Taliban.
He said he would reaffirm relationships he has with leaders there but would not intervene in U.S. efforts to arrange peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
"I just don't think it's appropriate for me to do so. But I certainly will be brought up to date and made aware of the, frankly, deterioration of the situation," he said.
In recent weeks, both Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have increased their criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement linking the U.S. economy with those of Canada and Mexico.
They pledged to pull the United States out of the NAFTA agreement if Mexico and Canada did not agree to renegotiate it. Critics blame NAFTA, China's accession to the World Trade Organization and other trade agreements for many of the roughly 3 million manufacturing jobs the United States has lost since 2000.
"I do not believe in isolationism and protectionism," McCain said. "We've got to stop this protectionist NAFTA-bashing."
The Bush administration -- noting that U.S. manufacturing output and exports set records last year -- argues that increased worker productivity and advances in manufacturing technology account for many of the lost jobs.
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab argues NAFTA had been good for all three countries and warned reopening it could backfire on the United States.
McCain said promoting green technologies would help the U.S. economy rebound from manufacturing job losses.
"The moral of the story is, my friends, is we're not going back to the old manufacturing base of the economy," he said.
No matter what you say. Ohio voters will blame NAFTA at the end of the day. McCain will lose. I don’t care. I think McCain would work with the Dems, force the Repubs to go along and ultimately pass more Dem agenda than a Dem-just like Arnold.
Please remain optimistic...missed that. I believe we can take this country back.
McCain’s love of NAFTA still another reason I won’t be voting for him. The GOP better start praying for the second coming, ‘cuz the way things now look, it’ll probably be President Obama or President Clinton after November.
And NAFTA is about as close as you'll get to it . . . and we don't have a FTA with Japan, either.
Much like free-traders laugh at the utter inability of most protectionists to present their argument without setting up a strawman. It's as if they have intellectual penis-envy.
A premise defeated by its own assertion. Don't see that very often.
I figure that you don't know what the heck you are talking about . . . Obama was the stronger anti-NAFTA candidate, and Clinton trounced him by eleven points.
And you still believe bigger government will solve your problems?
As for socialism, I think the loss of manufacturing jobs will usher in socialism...
So the socialism you favor is only to head off socialism?
However, we risk losing our battle with the Dems over socialism by supporting free trade policies-short term profits are not always really profits.
Bigger government will end your worry over profits.
>>I disagree. Trade is a big issue this year. A recession is looming. The Dems will trash McCain using free trade. This will have an impact.<<
I think you are right.
Wait... in about 30 seconds they will hurl “protectionist! tariffs!” charges at me.
I believe that, all other things being equal, high tariffs are not good. Case in point: Smoot-Hawley 1930. All other things equal, trade is a good thing.
I think that Dems are responsible for making US companies less competitive via taxes, and have contributed to the high price of oil via restrictions on drilling and refineries.
However, I do not agree that our trade relationships with China and India are really “free.” US companies who want to set up there have restrictions that would not apply to a foreign company setting up shop here. High taxes here should not be an excuse for Bush to let China get away with cheating.
I think we should have policies that encourage our students to study engineering and science. The offshoring of too many tech jobs and the greed that leads to ever higher demands for cheaper (although in many cases US workers don’t even have a chance to tell the employer how much they will work for) tech workers, will result in more lawyers. Including the ones who make videos showing companies how not to hire US workers.
And it’s not just jobs. Last year a Chinese stealth sub surprised a US carrier group by surfacing in it. The Chinese are using the profits of our trade deficit to become much, much stronger. Anti-satellite and space weapons, nanoweapons, you name it, they want it. If China invades Taiwan and, after they disable our satellites, they sink one our carriers in the conflict, remember the trade deficit.
The economy really is likely to have a real downturn this year. If McCain ignores these issues and says, “I’m sorry, that’s just the way it’s going to be,” I predict he will be sorry in November.
Yes, heaven forbid that you would ever want an economy that actually produces anything. /s
>>Yes, heaven forbid that you would ever want an economy that actually produces anything. /s<<
See my tagline.
We manufacture more than ever. Manufacturing is still a shrinking % of our GDP.
Are you upset that we produce more farm products with fewer farmers than we did 100 years ago?
—I’m not a democrat but I’m a NAFTA basher too. One more reason I won’t vote for that piece of trash.—
Megadittos on that, friend.
“McCain lashes Democrats for “NAFTA-bashing”
NAFTA has damned near destroyed the manufacturing base in this nation. NAFTA = the process by which the U.S. trades it’s jobs for the dregs of South America.
“And plan on fighting you on Shamnesty when you try to ram it down America’s throats, again.”
You will be told to shut your whining mouth by the McBots on this very forum, “after all you knew who he was when you voted for him.”
Remember the story of the scorpion and the frog.
You think we manufacture less today, 14+ years after NAFTA, than we did before NAFTA was passed?
Thus the name, North American Free Trade Agreement.
Again, for the second time (or is it the third?), we do not have a free trade agreement with China. Nor do we have a free trade agreement with India.
It just fascinates me that the first thing people who disagree with "free trade" (for whatever reason) do is identify countries that do not practice free trade, and claim they do. My guess is that you simply don't like the idea of trade in general.
The irony is that it takes a free-trader to correctly identify the countries that do not practice free trade.
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