Posted on 08/28/2008 9:10:59 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
Denver -- Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisor for the Western Hemisphere, Frank Sanchez, said Wednesday it is natural that a new government would want to review an agreement that has been in operation several years.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will review the NAFTA free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada to improve it, once he is elected, Sanchez said. “We need to take a close look at NAFTA and see how to improve it...”
The subject of NAFTA arose here in the Democratic National Convention within the framework of the Political Platform approved unanimously this past Monday. It authorizes Obama to negotiate amendments to the agreement with Mexico and Canada to bring about “migratory reform” and describes enforcement of the current immigration law, raids, as cruel to the undocumented…
Obama to Unions - thanks for your support.
- renegotiate NAFTA
- immediate unionization of 200k Govt TSA employees
- will ban secret balloting for unionization votes
- will further loosen rules on Union PAC contributions.
There are quite a few here on FR that think this would be a good thing!
(I’m not one of them)
What is Obama gonna do, unilaterally re-negotiate a contract? Good luck with that!
That large sucking sound you hear, presently centered in Denver, is Obama’s economic policy.
What a coward. Leave enough ambiguity to do nothing. In other words he doesn't give a shit one way or another about NAFTA but knows voters do. Let the voter put his own desires on Obama and make them his. Puke.
Stephen Harper said he would be happy to renegotiate.
He’d like a better deal for Canada. ;-)
To be perfectly fair, that was my translation. It could also be said to read “review NAFTA.” Did you see anything about this in the English-language press? I didn’t. But what he is telling the Mexican media, with a wink and a nudge, is that he wants to legalize all the illegals, and make it easier for the rest of the Mexican population to immigrate here.
That is the point of saying "revisit or review".
Guess he missed the revised growth for the previous quarter, based in big part, by exports.
He’d like a better deal for Canada. ;-)
And with the high price of oil and the democrats determination to prevent us from using our own oil, Canada would be in a much better position in renegotiating NAFTA than we are.
NAFTA was negotiated when we were in a considerably more favorable position. Renegotiating it now would be extremely foolish for us.
Bush, Mulroney, and Celinas signed NAFTA in December after Clinton was elected.
The democratic congress was not entirely pleased with NAFTA. They thought that it did not have enough protections for labor and environment, but all that they could do was give it either an up or down vote.
Instead, it was decided the Prez Clinton would negotiate a side/parallel agreement to NAFTA that contained the protections. Clinton did this in his first year, both agreements were approved by Congress, and NAFTA became effective the following Jan.
The problem was, the labor and environmental protections that Clinton negotiated in the side agreement turned out to be toothless.
Some democrats said that neither Clinton nor anyone else knew the implications of Chapter 11, so you couldn't blame Clinton.
Some democrats blamed Clinton's misfeasance, saying he shoulda/coulda done a better job.
Some democrats said it was Clinton's malfeasance. That he purposely negotiated a side agreement that was toothless because he was in cahoots with the GOP.
So now they want to renegotiate the NAFTA and put the protections into NAFTA.
I'm AM one of 'em. NAFTA is one of the biggest swindles in modern times and has wrecked towns and lives by the fistful as industries headed South for that lovely cheap labor (how come cars made in Mexico aren't cheaper than those made here?).
So, the poor campesios left the farms and headed for the factories, which after a few years, went to China for even cheaper labor. Those campesinos didn't go back to the farms - they headed North.
I recently saw a TV program that showed us importing automobiles and exporting lumber. That what a colony does folks, import manufactured goods and export raw materials. But Hey, "Free Trade" is good - just like Greed (thank you Gordon Gekko)
True, but electing Obama would be extremely foolish as well. Let's hope we don't have to deal with either.
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t NAFTA a treaty and not just an agreement? If it is a treaty like I think it is I don’t think you can just revisit it, it would have to be trashed and renegoiated in which case the jobs that have been gained from NAFTA would be lost and the jobs that left would not automatically come back here but head for Asia.
Yup.
> He’d like a better deal for Canada. ;-)
Recall that NAFTA was actually Phase II of “Free Trade” talks. Phase I was “Free Trade” between Canada and the US. Phase II brought Mexico into the picture.
Obama could very easily repeal NAFTA and leave Free Trade between Canada and the US in place — effectively kicking out Mexico. Speaking personally, I think that would be a fine idea.
Obama would lose any support from the Hispanics. I doubt he'd do it.
Party platforms are sucker bait. Period.
A whole bunch of lawyers sit around and compete at generation of the most flowery, overblown, deliberately vague promises with absolutely no enforceability. Invite ten people to read any paragraph in one of those messes, and you’d get TWENTY wildly divergent interpretations.
....and that’s my opinion of what the Republicans routinely put out.
The traitorcrats? They could print the full text of the Communist Manifesto as their platform and come closer to the truth than anything you’ll read this week.
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