Chris Dodd on Free Trade : Dec 13, 2007
China gains advantage by slavery & currency manipulation

A: This is an adversarial relationship today. That needs to change. But when you manipulate your currency as they do, in violation of the WTO here, to the tune of 40%, you've immediately created a huge disadvantage for our country. When you employ slave labor in the production of your manufactured goods, when you deny access on your shelves to the products and services we produce, it is not a competition. It's adversarial.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Nov 18, 2007
Voted for China trade, but Bush has not enforced obligations

A: Yeah. He's wrong. The answer is that if you look at my record, I've actually been very consistent [against trade deals]. And on the issue of China, bringing China into the WTO, if we have a president that will actually enforce their trading obligations, actually gives us power over controlling their trading obligations. Unfortunately, we've had George Bush for 7 years, who's done none of that. We need a president who will enforce their trading obligations.

Q: A lot of us remember the Al Gore debate with Ross Perot. At that time you opposed NAFTA as well?

A: Yes. I was not in the Senate then. But when I ran for the Senate, I was very vocally opposed to NAFTA because I had seen what effect it had on the people that I grew up with.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Nov 18, 2007
Opposes trade with Colombia, South Korea, and Peru

John Edwards on Free Trade : Nov 15, 2007
Hold China responsible for their trade obligations

A: What is a mistake is allowing China to operate unfettered, to send dangerous products into this country, to not have the president of the US hold them responsible for their trading obligations to the WTO, which has not been done. It was right to bring them into the WTO. It's wrong to not hold them responsible for their obligations.

Hillary Clinton on Free Trade : Oct 30, 2007
FactCheck: for NAFTA while First Lady; now against CAFTA

Obama is partly right concerning the North American Free Trade Agreement. Clinton's views on NAFTA have shifted, but they shifted prior to her official run for the White House. Back in 1998, in a keynote speech given at the Davos Economic Summit, Clinton praised business leaders for mounting "a very effective business effort in the US on behalf of NAFTA," adding later that "it is certainly clear that we have not by any means finished the job that has begun." But by 2005 she was expressing reservations about free trade agreements, voting that year against the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). And she told Bloomberg News in March 2007 that, while she still believes in free trade, she supports a freeze on new trade agreements--something she calls "a little time-out."

Mike Huckabee on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Tom Tancredo on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Ron Paul on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No North American Union; no WTO; no UN

A: Not only do I not want a North American Union, I want us out of the U.N., the IMF, the World Bank, the WTO, NAFTA and CAFTA. NAFTA has nothing to do for free trade. It's a pretense to lower tariffs, but it's a reason to go talk to the WTO to raise tariffs. We need free trade. That's very, very important. But you don't get that by world government.

Sam Brownback on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
Trade is key to growing our economy

But I also think you gotta enforce your trade laws. And that's something we haven't done, particularly towards China. I think we're having a lot of problems of products coming in because we haven't enforced our trade laws.

Sam Brownback on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
China trade contingent on human rights & product safety

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

John Cox on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Ron Paul on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Duncan Hunter on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Sam Brownback on Free Trade : Sep 17, 2007
No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Sep 9, 2007
NAFTA accelerated immigration from Mexico, in search of jobs

A: Well, first of all, we have to understand why so many people came north of the border to seek work. I talked about the connection between NAFTA, trade and our immigration policies. When NAFTA was passed, there was an acceleration of immigration from Mexico because people were in search of jobs. They were told their wages were going to go up. Wages collapsed in Mexico. Now, there were many corporations north of the border who were ready to receive a supply of cheap labor. We understand that. So of course we need to provide people a path to legalization. But if we do not look at NAFTA while we're looking at immigration, we're going to keep having the same problems. A new trade agreement with Mexico that has those principles will help workers in Mexico, help workers in the US, create conditions where we finally gain control of our economic destiny again.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Sep 9, 2007
FactCheck: NAFTA coincided with (not caused) peso collapse

His chronology is correct; his economic theory is highly debatable. NAFTA went into effect Jan. 1, 1994. The Mexican peso collapsed late that year, leading to large job losses and reduced wages. Most economists, including the World Bank and the Congressional Budget Office, describe the peso collapse as coincidental.

However, Kucinich is not the only one to espouse a NAFTA-peso relationship. The liberal Economic Policy Institute argued the connection in a 1997 report titled "NAFTA and The Peso Collapse: Not Just a Coincidence." They wrote, "The peso had to be devalued in order to implement the Mexican strategy for export-led growth that NAFTA was intended to promote."

Mike Gravel on Free Trade : Sep 9, 2007
CAFTA & NAFTA cause unemployment in Mexico & Central America

Ron Paul on Free Trade : Sep 1, 2007
NAFTA superhighway threatens widespread eminent domain

John Edwards on Free Trade : Aug 19, 2007
Trade agreements now focus on profits for big multinationals

A: I think we've had a failed trade policy in America. The question seems to have been, on past trade agreements like NAFTA: Is this trade agreement good for the profits of big multinational corporations? And the answer to those questions on the trade agreements we've entered into has been yes. It's been very good for multinational corporations. It has not been good for American workers. And in an Edwards administration, the first question I will ask in every single trade agreement we're considering is: Is this good for middle-class working families in America? That would be the threshold question. And, second, we will have real labor and environmental standards in the text of the agreement, which I will enforce. And then finally we will end these loopholes that actually create tax incentives for companies to leave America and take jobs somewhere else.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Base trade on worker rights, human rights & environment

A: In my first week in office, I will notify Mexico and Canada that the US is withdrawing from NAFTA. We need a president who knows what the right thing is to do the first time, not in retrospect. And I think that we need to go forward to trade that's based on workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. No one else on this stage could give a direct answer because they don't intend to scrap NAFTA. We're going to be stuck with it

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Manufacturing policy: trade based on workers right

Barack Obama on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Amend NAFTA to add labor agreements

A: I would immediately call the president of Mexico, the president of Canada to try to amend NAFTA because I think that we can get labor agreements in that agreement right now. And it should reflect the basic principle that our trade agreements should not just be good for Wall Street, it should also be good for Main Street.

Joe Biden on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
President's job is to create jobs, not to export jobs

A: A president's job is to create jobs, not to export jobs, and the idea that we are not willing to take the prime minister of Canada and the president of Mexico to the mat to make this agreement work is just a lack of presidential leadership. I would lead, I would do that, I would change it.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
NAFTA is perfect example of bigger need for change

A: It needs to be fixed, but the first thing I want to say is NAFTA is a perfect example of the bigger problem. This deal was negotiated by Washington insiders, not by anybody in this stadium tonight. And the question is, when are we going to change it? It's cost us a million jobs. We need environmental and labor standards. We need actually the Justice Department prosecuting the standards under NAFTA.

Bill Richardson on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Enforce labor & environmental standards & job safety

A: We should never have another trade agreement unless it enforces labor protection, environmental standards and job safety. What we need to do is say that from now on, America will adhere to all international labor standards in any trade agreement--no child labor, no slave labor, freedom of association, collective bargaining--that is critically important--making sure that no wage disparity exists.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
FactCheck: NAFTA did not cost US a million jobs

That's a disputed estimate. Other economic studies have produced far lower numbers. The million job figure comes from the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington with ties to the labor movement. EPI estimated that the growth of exports since 1994 has supported an additional 1 million jobs in the US, while imports have displaced domestic production that would have supported 2 million jobs, leaving a net loss of 1 million. EPI's detractors state that EPI's estimate assumes that NAFTA is to blame for 100% of the growth in the trade deficit between the US and both Canada and Mexico and that it ignores other factors.

Whatever the effects of NAFTA, the US has gained nearly 26 million jobs since the agreement took effect on Jan. 1, 1994, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Chris Dodd on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Include labor, environmental & health in trade deals

A: I think this requires modification. But we also need to do something else here. In addition to having trading agreements that include labor, environmental, health provisions in them, insisting on those provisions in any trading agreement here, we need to stop exporting the jobs in the country that already are here. I offered legislation by banning the outsourcing of jobs in the Senate.

Hillary Clinton on Free Trade : Aug 7, 2007
Smart, pro-American trade: NAFTA has hurt workers

A: Well, I had said that for many years, that NAFTA and the way it's been implemented has hurt a lot of American workers. In fact, I did a study in New York looking at the impact of NAFTA on business people, workers and farmers who couldn't get their products into Canada despite NAFTA. So, clearly we have to have a broad reform in how we approach trade. NAFTA's a piece of it, but it's not the only piece of it. I believe in smart trade. Pro-American trade. Trade that has labor and environmental standards, that's not a race to the bottom but tries to lift up not only American workers but also workers around the world. It's important that we enforce the agreements we have. That's why I've called for a trade prosecutor, to make sure that we do enforce them. The Bush administration haven't been enforcing the trade agreements at all.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jul 23, 2007
Go back to trade based on worker's rights

A: No. We're going to stop the tax increases that Bush gave to people in the top brackets. We're going to end war as an instrument of policy. So we're not going to borrow money from China to fight wars in Baghdad. We're going to lower our trade deficit by ending NAFTA & the WTO and going back to trade based on worker's rights. We're going to change our economy so people will be able to get something for the taxes they pay but they're not going to have to pay more.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jun 28, 2007
Democrats started NAFTA; Democrats will end it

GRAVEL: Outsourcing is not the problem. What is the problem is our trade agreements that benefit the management and the shareholders.

One of my first acts in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and go back to trade conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. That's what we must do. A Democratic administration started NAFTA. A Democratic administration will end it.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Feb 21, 2007
NAFTA and GATT intentionally limit workers rights

Now, why was that? Cheap labor. They also were looking to move it to places where if possible they could have prison labor, slave labor, child labor. They didn't want environmental restrictions. So what happened is NAFTA and GATT opened up the door for that. And it really undermined workers in this country, it undermined workers in other countries.

My first week in office, I will move to cancel NAFTA and our relationship with the WTO and go back to bilateral trade that will be conditioned on workers' rights, human rights, environmental quality principles.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Nov 7, 2006
Withdraw from NAFTA and WTO

Bill Richardson on Free Trade : Nov 3, 2005
NAFTA critically important for US as well as Mexico

That didn't mean the absence of dislocation: while NAFTA figured to create more jobs in the US, some jobs would be lost. A key part of the final bill presented to Congress needed to include worker-adjustment programs and other so-called side agreements addressing such issues as labor standards and the environment.

I felt the treaty was crucial to Mexico. I thought NAFTA would create positive economic change and help to stimulate a broader political debate. I thought it also had the potential to affect the immigration issue: if Mexico's economy boomed, beter-paying jobs would provide Mexicans an incentive to stay home.

Hillary Clinton on Free Trade : Oct 11, 2005
Voted against CAFTA despite Bill Clinton's pushing NAFTA

John McCain on Free Trade : Nov 7, 2004
No environmental provisions in trade agreements

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support continued U.S. membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the trade embargo against Cuba?

A: Yes.

Q: Should trade agreements include provisions to address environmental concerns and to protect workers' rights?

A: No.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Feb 26, 2004
Renegotiate NAFTA rather than cancel it

SHARPTON: I want to cancel it.

EDWARDS: I think we do need to renegotiate it. The problem with NAFTA is these side agreements don't work. You have to put these labor/environmental protections in the text of the agreement.

Q: Will that be enough?

SHARPTON: No, I don't think so. This cost jobs for Americans. And it is unequivocal evidence that it costs Americans jobs. People were unemployed. It also went below labor and human rights standards abroad. We need to cancel NAFTA unequivocally. We need to have standards that we would not deal with nations that would put laborers in those kinds of situations. We cannot protect American corporations and call that patriotic and not protect American workers and call that protections.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Feb 26, 2004
Withdraw from WTO because they disallow protecting jobs

KUCINICH: NAFTA and the WTO must be canceled. Let me tell you why. The WTO doesn't permit any alterations. When we, as members of Congress, sought from the administration a Section 201 procedure to stop the dumping of steel into our markets so we could stop our American steel jobs from being crushed, the World Trade Organization ruled against the United States and said we had no right to do that. Now, the World Trade Organization, as long as we belong to it, will not let us protect the jobs. This is the reason why we have outsourcing going on right now. We can't tax it. We can't put tariffs on it. In order to protect jobs in this country and to be able to create a enforceable structure for trade, we need to get out of NAFTA, get out of the WTO.

Q: And you can do that by edict?

KUCINICH: The president has the power to withdraw from both NAFTA and the WTO upon a six-months notice. And I would exercise that authority to help save American jobs.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jan 29, 2004
Americans' social consciousness overrides cheap goods

A: That presumes that people of this country do not have a social consciousness. I believe they do. That's why we've lost hundreds of textile plants in this country. That's why our steel, automotive, aerospace, shipping and textile industries are in such severe trouble. My first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jan 25, 2004
Free trade encourages privatization, so avoid it

A: No, and my first act in office will be to repeal the existing ones. NAFTA has spurred a $418 billion trade deficit, costing 525,000 jobs, most of them in manufacturing. The World Trade Organization forced our president to lift steel tariffs, which will cost us more good jobs and hurt consumers. The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas would encourage the privatization of municipal services, including water.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jan 22, 2004
Bilateral trade structure to support American manufacturing

KUCINICH: 22,000 jobs lost in N.H. can be directly traced to NAFTA and the WTO, good paying jobs in this state that were lost. [Nationwide, we lost] 3 million American manufacturing jobs because of NAFTA and the WTO. As president, I intend to have a trade structure which supports manufacturing in this country-steel, automotive, aerospace, textiles, shipping. I intend to have a manufacturing policy which stops the hemorrhaging not only of manufacturing jobs, but high-tech jobs as well. As president, my first act in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and return to bilateral trade conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. I wish that every candidate on this stage would join me in saying that you would agree to cancel NAFTA and the WTO, in light of what it's cost New Hampshire.

John Edwards on Free Trade : Jan 4, 2004
Against NAFTA, against Chile trade, against Singapore trade

EDWARDS: I didn't vote for NAFTA. I campaigned against NAFTA. I voted against the Chilean trade agreement, against the Caribbean trade agreement, against the Singapore trade agreement, against final passage of fast track for this president. Gephardt has sent out mailings attacking and identifying all of us and putting us in the same category.

GEPHARDT: Well, you weren't in Congress when NAFTA came up. But you voted for China.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jan 4, 2004
President has authority to cancel NAFTA and WTO-I will

DEAN: I did not vote for NAFTA or the WTO, because I have never served in Congress. But I did support China's entry into the WTO in 1999 because I believed it was an issue for national security. I believe in constructive engagement. That doesn't mean these agreements don't need to be changed. We have stood up for multinational corporations in these agreements, but we have not stood up for workers' rights, environmental rights and human rights. And until we do, trade doesn't work.

GEPHARDT: Look, Howard, you were for NAFTA. You came to the signing ceremony. You were for the China agreement. It's one thing to talk the talk, it's another thing to walk the walk. We've got to get labor and environment in these treaties, when the treaties are before the Congress. That's when it counts.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Nov 4, 2003
Push trade deals based on power of US market leverage

A: The US is not a beggar in international trade relations. The US is the world's number one consumer market. The world wants to sell to American consumers. That ought to represent leverage. But the US gave up its leverage when it joined the WTO. Withdrawal from the WTO will enable the US to reclaim its leverage. With this leverage, we will ask of our trading partners to buy from us approximately an equivalent amount of what we buy from them-the principle of correspondence. We can also promote workplace, human and environmental rights from around the world by simply telling our trading partners that we are not interested in buying their products when they are made with child labor, or are made in factories which show no regard for environmental protection.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Sep 4, 2003
Companies profit from trade based on Third World misery

KUCINICH: The real question is what kind of profits do the Kmarts and the Wal-Marts of the world make?

Q: Well, Kmart, not too much.

KUCINICH: But on the misery of those people in Third World countries who are working for pennies an hour and are finding themselves unable to support their own families.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Sep 4, 2003
First act as president will be to cancel NAFTA

NAFTA makes it impossible to be able to protect workers' rights. Now, those people say they're going to put conditions on NAFTA. If you put conditions on NAFTA, that's WTO illegal. Unless we cancel NAFTA and withdraw from the WTO, we aren't going to [improve the economy]. I'm the one, first day in office, cancel NAFTA, cancel the WTO, return to bilateral trade with all those conditions we've just spoken about.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Aug 1, 2003
No NAFTA, No WTO, No Fast Track

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : May 3, 2003
Cancel NAFTA and the WTO

I think it's time, not just to move around the edges of this issue, it's time to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and return to a trading system that's conditioned on workers' rights, human rights and the environment.

Otherwise, workers are undermined at the bargaining table, jobs are going south and out of the county and off of this continent. We're losing control of our own destiny with a $500 billion trade deficit and with rising unemployment. And I think that a core problem here is our trade policy. It's time to get rid of NAFTA and the WTO.

Al Gore on Free Trade : Oct 31, 2000
More Latin American trade, with labor & enviro protections

A: I am committed to enhancing our alliance and expanding trade with the countries of Latin America. Trade has been an important part of our economic expansion and creates high-paying jobs. As president, I will build on the work that the administration began when the U.S. hosted the first Summit of the Americas to promote hemispheric cooperation on a full spectrum of political, economic, security, and social issues. As we expand our trade agreements, we can achieve more based on what we have learned in the past seven years. I will insist that labor and environmental protections are included as part of future trade agreements.

Al Gore on Free Trade : Sep 30, 2000
Link trade to environment and labor

Gore is clearly torn between his instinctive support of free trade and his need to win the support of unions. Gore:
• wants to “continue to knock down the barriers to free and fair trade” (make countries open their doors to American products)
• supports linking trade agreements to labor and environmental standards
• wants to obtain “fast-track” negotiating authority that includes power to negotiate labor and environmental standards
• supports making the WTO more open and accountable.

Al Gore on Free Trade : Mar 11, 2000
Agrees with unions on 90% of issues, but not on free trade

Al Gore on Free Trade : Mar 11, 2000
Push Congress aggressively on China/WTO

Al Gore on Free Trade : Mar 3, 2000
Debate with Perot was instrumental in passing NAFTA

John McCain on Free Trade : Feb 28, 2000
Against foreign sales corporations (offshore tax breaks)

McCain was asked if he supported a recent ruling by the WTO to eliminate foreign sales corporations, the off-shore subsidiaries that many US companies set up to channel overseas sales, avoiding $4 billion on US taxes & export duties.

McCain took the side of the WTO, saying that that he opposed the corporate tax shelter.“We’re spending millions of dollars to help McDonald’s sell hamburgers overseas,” he said.

McCain said the protections are unnecessary. “We can compete with anybody in any market in the world because our products and our workers are the most productive,” he said. “The answer is not to subsidize with taxpayers’ dollars these major corporations. The answer is to say to every country, ‘Allow our products into your country and we’ll compete on a level playing field.’ ”

Al Gore on Free Trade : Dec 20, 1999
Supports permanent normal trade relations with China

John McCain on Free Trade : Mar 18, 1999
NAFTA has had unambiguously positive impact on US

John McCain on Free Trade : Jul 2, 1998
Pro-NAFTA, pro-GATT, pro-MFN, pro-Fast Track

McCain supports the following statements regarding free trade:
• Supports NAFTA, including broadening NAFTA to include other countries in the western hemisphere.
• Supports GATT and the WTO.
• Opposes imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products.
• A nation’s human rights record should not affect its “most favored nation” trading status with the US.
• Supports granting the President “fast-track” authority.

Bill Richardson on Free Trade : Nov 1, 1996
Supports NAFTA, GATT, & WTO

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support the WTO?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products?

A: No.

Q: Should a nation's human rights record affect its "most favored nation" trading status with the United States?

A: Yes.

Dennis Kucinich on Free Trade : Jul 2, 1996
Retaliatory tariffs yes; GATT no

• Q: Do you support the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)?

  A: No.

• Q: Do you support broadening NAFTA to include other countries?

  A: No.

• Q: Do you support the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)?

  A: No.

• Q: Do you support imposing tariffs on products imported from nations that maintain restrictive trade barriers on American products?

  A: Yes.

• Q: Should a nation's human rights record affect its "most favored nation" trading status with the US?

  A: Yes.