Trade issue close to home for Edwards

[maddezmom]

Trade issue close to home for Edwards
By Raja Mishra and Anne E. Kornblut, Globe Staff, 2/20/2004

ATLANTA -- Senator John Edwards never misses a chance to tell people he is the "son of a mill worker," recalling the days before many manufacturing jobs in the South were sent overseas.

And to draw a sharp distinction between himself and Democratic front-runner John F. Kerry, Edwards often reminds audiences he opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, while Kerry voted to pass it -- setting in motion new economic forces that labor leaders believe have cost Americans jobs.

But as Kerry is quick to point out, Edwards never had to vote on NAFTA; he was still working as a lawyer then. And during his five years in the Senate, Edwards has been more flexible on trade than his rhetoric suggests: In 2000, he supported solidifying trade relations with China, swayed by technology, furniture, textile and tobacco firms in his home state of North Carolina who sought to sell their products to Chinese consumers. His North Carolina GOP colleague, Republican Senator Jesse Helms, opposed it.

Two years later, Edwards initially backed giving President Bush broad "fast-track" powers to negotiate future trade agreements. Only when a provision protecting the textile industry was stripped out did Edwards oppose it.

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more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/02/20/trade_issue_close_to_home_for_edwards/

[maddezmom]

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