Last week I asked which major party was going to be more trade-friendly.Yesterday, Hillary Clinton provided part of the answer. The Financial Times’ Edward Luce summarizes:
Hillary Clinton, frontrunner for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, on Monday said that all US trade agreements should be evaluated every five years and, if necessary, amended.The process should start with the North America Free Trade Agreement, which was the signature trade pact of her husband, Bill Clinton, when he was president.
The comments, which were aimed at union leaders who remain critical of Nafta, which they say has displaced US workers, amount to her strongest break so far with Mr Clinton’s pro-free trade agenda of the 1990s.
Mrs Clinton said Nafta suffered from “serious shortcomings”. She also reiterated her pledge to incorporate strong environmental and labour protections in future trade deals – a measure most economists view as protectionist.
“I think it is time that we assess trade agreements every five years to make sure they’re meeting their goals or to make adjustments if they are not,” she said in a speech in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which stages the first caucus vote in the presidential nomination process next January. “And we should start by doing that with Nafta.”….
In addition to the five-year trade reviews, Mrs Clinton said she would appoint a federal trade enforcement officer who would monitor compliance with trade agreements.
Click here for more details (it’s not all bad; the proposal to expand trade adjustment assistance to cover service-sector workers makes sense). For a party that claims it wants to burnish America’s image abroad, the Democrats sure know how to propose specific steps that will piss off our trading partners.Seriously, if this kind of review is proposed, what incentive would any country have to sign an FTA with the United States?
Indeed; what country would want to sign any kind of trade agreement with the United States under those conditions? I’m telling you folks, the woman if she gets the chance we’ll end up in a world-wide a financial collapse. And the economic collapse may not be the worst of it. Her ineptness cuts across all categories.
Tags: BitsBlog, Democrats, Economics, Elections, International affairs
