Clinton Announces Support for NAFTA Expansion

[Jean]

Clinton Announces Support for NAFTA Expansion

David Sirota
Nov 8, 2007

Under intense pressure from opponents in the 2008 presidential race and a building national fair trade movement, Sen. Hillary Clinton tonight finally disclosed her position on a Bush administration-backed bill to expand the NAFTA trade model that passed the U.S. House today and is now moving to the U.S. Senate. Reuters is reporting that Clinton says she will vote for the Peru Free Trade Agreement - the first agreement in a package of corporate-crafted agreements to vastly expand the NAFTA trade model.

Clinton is citing the Peru deal's labor standards as justification for her support, despite the fact that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has told reporters it has received "assurances" that those labor standards are "unenforceable," and despite a Columbia University report showing how the Peru deal could actually weaken labor law enforcement.

The announcement, which flies in the face of polls showing the public strongly opposed to NAFTA-style trade policies, comes on the same day the New York Times reports that Clinton is being endorsed by NAFTA architect Robert Rubin, the CEO of Citigroup - a company that stands to reap financial rewards from the NAFTA model. Rubin's announcement came with a promise to raise Clinton more money from Wall Street.

This announcement could change the dynamics of the presidential race, considering recent headline-grabbing plant closings in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

As my nationally syndicated newspaper column out tomorrow details, trade and globalization is taking center stage in the 2008 presidential campaign. Clinton's announcement will now specifically make job-killing, wage-destroying NAFTA-style trade policy a flashpoint in the race for the White House.

www.huffingtonpost.com

[MW]

the first agreement in a package of corporate-crafted agreements

That pretty much sums up the problem with these lousy free trade agreements!

[AirborneSapper7]

Just another reason to keep this fool out of office

[wmb1957]

This woman is a fraud. Repeatedly she says one thing and then another. Just a couple of months she was "against NAFTA without protections" and blaming it all on the first Bush.

As much of a fraud as she is, it may be good for her to win, its easy enough to prove she is a fraud, crooked, manipulative, compulsive and evasive.

I cannot figure out why so many people fall for such a sham.

[agrneydgrl]

amen to that. Just what we need another "free" trade agreement that is meant to hurt Americans. After all, we MUSTt be the Saviour of the world even if it means the destruction of the middle class of AMERICA