[NOTE: all Policy Position comparisons can be found by going HERE - or by typing "policy positions" {in quotes!} in the Search Blog box in the upper left corner of page.]

Policy Positions Re: TRADE


How do Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) differ on trade? The National Journal compared and contrasted the two presidential candidates.



MCCAIN ON TRADE

Trade agreements:

• McCain calls himself an "unashamed and unabashed defender" of the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement and criticizes Obama's "protectionist NAFTA-bashing."
• He supports a pending free-trade agreement with Colombia and backs the pending South Korea free-trade agreement, citing Seoul's pivotal role as a strategic ally in Northeast Asia and in Iraq.
• He has voiced support for an eventual free-trade agreement with the European Union.
• He promises to seek an end to all agricultural tariffs and farm subsidizes that are not based on clear need and to "aggressively promote trade liberalization at the World Trade Organization."
• He vows to hold "every nation we trade with to the commitments they have made under the agreements we have signed."

China:

• McCain says that a robust trading relationship with China, America's fastest-growing export partner, is in the best interest of the United States.
• To that end, in 2000 he voted in favor of permanent normal trade relations with China, which opened the door for Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization.
• He argues against focusing too much "in isolation" on the overvalued Chinese currency.
• He pledges to pressure Beijing on food and product safety and on intellectual-property protection.

Displaced workers:

• McCain would deposit a portion of each person's unemployment insurance taxes into a "lost-earnings buffer account" that workers could use to cover expenses when they lose their jobs.
• Traditional unemployment insurance would kick in if the new account was exhausted within 26 weeks.
• A worker would receive any unspent funds upon retirement.
• He would also give workers access to a flexible training account to provide quick assistance in seeking new skills.

Source: "McCain on Trade," in "Where They Stand," National Journal, August 30, 2008.

For text:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20080830_3632.php



OBAMA ON TRADE

Trade agreements:

• Obama proposed renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement to bolster labor and environmental standards.
• He promises to use future trade agreements to raise labor and environmental 'standards'.
• He opposes the Colombia agreement because of violence against union leaders, but promises to work with Bogota to deepen the bilateral relationship.

China:

• Obama chastises the administration for taking no action against Chinese currency manipulation.
• He co-sponsored legislation that would make currency undervaluation a subsidy and, as a result, would likely permit countervailing duties to be applied to Chinese imports. [Q: who gets the money from duties?]
• This bill would direct the Treasury secretary to initiate negotiations with Beijing to revalue its currency.

Displaced workers:

• Obama wants to update the existing Trade Adjustment Assistance program to include service workers.
• He would create flexible education accounts to retrain workers.
• He would provide retraining assistance for workers before they lose their jobs in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation.
• He would provide assistance to hard-hit communities and improve the health care tax credit for dislocated workers.

Source: "Obama on Trade," in "Where They Stand," National Journal, August 30, 2008.

For text:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20080830_3632.php