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Council on Foreign Relations Evaluation of the Candidates on Trade Issues: Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Kucinich (D-OH) has been one of the most adamant congressional critics of free trade, saying it is responsible for lost jobs in the United States and abusive working conditions abroad. He voted against the creation of FTAs with Oman, Singapore, and Chile, and against the Trade Act of 2002. He says if elected, he will withdraw the United States from NAFTA immediately. In November 2007, Kucinich voted against legislation authorizing an FTA with Peru. That FTA passed in the House, however.
Kucinich also voted against the CAFTA Implementation Bill in 2005, saying, “trade agreements are seeking cheaper labor where they can go to countries where the labor is cheap, but they are not selling American goods there. So we are seeing that we are not finding new markets for our goods; yet, we are finding markets for cheap labor. That is what these trade agreements do.”
Kucinich voted in favor of a 2005 House resolution proposing U.S. withdrawal from the WTO. Although that resolution failed, he continues to advocate withdrawal. He also voted against the Africa Free Trade bill. Kucinich has generally voted against any bills that extend normal trade relations treatment to China. He voted against the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2002, which authorized the extension of normalized trade relations between the U.S. and China, as long as China agreed to join the World Trade Organization.
John Edwards
Sen. Edwards (D-NC) has been increasingly critical of free trade policies, arguing that they have diminished protections for labor and the environment. In October 2007, Edwards spoke against the FTA with Peru, which he says is simply an attempt to expand NAFTA. Upon that FTA's November 2007 passage in the House, Edwards said he was "disappointed," and criticized Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) for supporting the legislation. He also pledged to oppose efforts to create similar trade deals (FT) with Colombia and Panama.
Edwards has also criticized the Bush administration’s push for a trade agreement with South Korea. Edwards said in a February 2007 statement that “Bush should shut down all trade negotiations with South Korea until they prove their willingness to open their market to American automobiles and other U.S. products and agree to trade fairly.” As a senator, Edwards voted against the implementation of the FTA with Chile in 2003, and against the Africa Free Trade bill in 1999. But he voted in favor of the U.S.-China Relations Act in 2000. Edwards is critical of NAFTA, but he was not in Senate at the time of its passage in 1993. Forbes magazine, in an index examining candidate positions on critical campaign issues, ranks Edwards at the most liberal end of the Democratic spectrum on trade issues.
Barack Obama
Sen. Obama (D-IL) generally supports free trade policies, though like many of his fellow Democratic candidates, he has expressed concern about free trade agreements that do not include labor and environmental protections. Obama voted to approve the 2006 FTA with Oman. He opposed CAFTA, however, explaining in 2005, “It does less to protect labor than previous trade agreements, and does little to address enforcement of basic environmental standards in the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic.” In an August 2007 Democratic debate, Obama said he would meet with the Canadian and Mexican heads of state to “try to amend NAFTA,” saying the agreement “should reflect the principle that our trade should not just be good for Wall Street, but should also be good for Main Street”.
Hillary Clinton
In general a supporter of free trade, Sen. Clinton (D-NY) voted in support of the creation of FTAs with Chile, Singapore, and Oman. But like Biden, she criticized the FTAs with Chile and Singapore for what she said was their weak enforcement of International Labor Organization (ILO) standards. She said “the labor provisions in the Chile and Singapore agreements should not be used as a model for future trade agreements.” Clinton voted against CAFTA and the Trade Act of 2002. In 2004, Clinton voted for the United States-Australia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act, which she said “offers greater access to Australian markets for U.S. manufacturers.” Most recently, Clinton spoke out against the pending FTA with South Korea (Reuters), which she called "inherently unfair," particularly for the U.S. auto industry. She has also criticized FTAs with Colombia and Panama. Clinton expressed support, on the other hand, for the FTA with Peru, which passed in the House in November 2007.
Clinton has parted ways with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on several trade-related issues. She has expressed skepticism about aspects of the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, which he supported, and has taken less enthusiastic positions on the benefits of globalization more generally. Clinton also expresses concerns over U.S. trade practices with China. “We just can't keep doing what we did in the 20th century,” she said in a recent interview (Bloomberg).
Also Ran
Gov. Richardson (D-NM) has called himself a “free trader” (Albuquerque Journal), though he has called for increased enforcement of labor standards and environmental protection in free trade agreements. As U.S. ambassador to the UN, Richardson praised free trade and the International Monetary Fund. He has particularly promoted free trade between the U.S. and Latin America, and was a leading voice in the push to create NAFTA in 1993. In a 1998 speech, Richardson called for legislation toward “creating a hemispheric-wide free trade agreement that will establish a $12 trillion market of 850 million people. This free trade zone will create jobs, open new markets and raise living standards from Ecuador to East Los Angeles.”
Sen. Biden (D-DE) in general espouses free trade policies but has been a recent critic of Bush administration bilateral and regional agreements on opening markets. He voted against the creation of FTAs with Oman in 2006 and with Singapore and Chile in 2003. He also voted against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) in 2005. ... Biden also voted against the Trade Act of 2002, which reauthorized the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), granting certain trade benefits to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. In 1999, Biden voted in favor of the Africa Free Trade bill, which authorized a “new trade and investment policy for sub-Sahara Africa” and the granting of trade benefits to Caribbean countries. ... Biden also voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1993....
A self-described "free trader," Sen. Dodd (D-CT) nonetheless expressed mixed feelings on the negative effects of free trade in a speech on the CAFTA-DR Act of 2005. He voted against that act, citing the problems presented by globalization for countries like Nicaragua and Guatemala where poverty remains widespread. “With CAFTA-DR, we are stepping backwards in a region of the world that needs a commitment to lift up the quality of life for its citizens," he said. Dodd also voted against FTAs with Chile, Singapore and Oman, and against the Trade Act of 2002. He voted in favor of the Africa Free Trade bill of 2002 and NAFTA.
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