Why Do Clinton and Obama Hate NAFTA So Much?

The simple answer is that they are campaigning in Ohio, which is depressed and has lost a lot of jobs. So criticizing NAFTA makes them seem sympathetic to Ohio's plight and they hope to win votes with their position. Hillary's decrying of NAFTA is especially ironic as NAFTA was a big policy priority and accomplishment of her husband. Since Hillary counts her experience as First Lady as making her more qualified than Obama, this is relevant. Where was she when NAFTA was passed?

Facts need to be injected into the current debate about NAFTA. What exactly is the effect of NAFTA on Ohio? The WSJ today ran an op-ed full of facts that make the anti-NAFTA position look like a loser for Ohio.

Ohio workers would pay a heavy price for pulling out of Nafta. Canada and Mexico are the top two markets for exports from Ohio, accounting for more than half of the state's exports in 2006. According to the Ohio Department of Development, 283,500 workers in the state earn their living in the export sector, with machinery, car parts, aircraft engines and optical/medical equipment among the leading exports. A trade showdown would put those good-paying jobs at risk.

Since Nafta took effect on Jan. 1, 1994, the U.S. economy has added a net 26 million new jobs. The average real hourly compensation (wages and benefits) of workers has climbed 23%. Real median household net worth has increased by a third. Of course, Nafta was not the primary driver of all that good news. But it is a useful counterpoint to the sense that large numbers of Americans have been "devastated" by Nafta and other trade agreements.

Sending U.S. Tanks and Ships Overseas: Good...Sending Ford Cars and Trucks Overseas: Not So Good

This is not the type of national sentiment you want going into an election cycle. WSJ:

WASHINGTON -- By a nearly two-to-one margin, Republican voters believe free trade is bad for the U.S. economy, a shift in opinion that mirrors Democratic views and suggests trade deals could face high hurdles under a new president.

[...]

Six in 10 Republicans in the poll agreed with a statement that free trade has been bad for the U.S. and said they would agree with a Republican candidate who favored tougher regulations to limit foreign imports. That represents a challenge for Republican candidates who generally echo Mr. Bush's calls for continued trade expansion, and reflects a substantial shift in sentiment from eight years ago.

Full article here.

Tarriffs and Trade Barriers=Freedom

From the back country of western Maryland, where the trees grow and the pulp is pressed, we are given this example of the continued creep of populist protectionism in America.

LUKE, Md. - China is 7,000 miles away from this speck of a town in the mountains, half a world away. But as a looming economic threat, the country has never seemed so stiflingly close.

The paper mill here that employs 950 is feeling the pressure of cheaper Chinese imports. On New Year's Eve, it shut down one of its three huge manufacturing machines and cut 130 jobs, touching off rumors across the tri-state region where employees live that it was only a matter of time before the plant closed.

But now there's cautious hope that things will get better, or at least no worse. NewPage Corp., the mill's Ohio-based owner, has persuaded the U.S. government to slap tariffs on Chinese competitors for operating with what investigators call unfair advantages

[...]

Tom Caldwell, president of the local United Steelworkers union, which represents most of the mill's workers, sees the tariffs as a line in the sand.

"In order to be a free country, we have to have manufacturing," he said. "We cannot continue to let jobs go overseas."

[...]

"Everything I have depends on if that place stays," said Bowers, 33, a mother of three.

She worries -- how can she not? And she wonders about American manufacturing. Everywhere, it seems to her, plants are closing. "I really do feel as long as the government allows the foreign trade, there's no job safe in the United States, because we can't beat or meet their prices," she said.

Shut down foreign trade and help keep America free! I don't know about you, but I never feel more American than when I walk into Stables and overpay for domestically produced computer paper. Viva la papel americano!

I'll leave you with some thoughts of compassion for those consumers, or workers in others industries that might feel the pinch from the trade barriers. Courtesy of Luke's mayor, Joseph LaRue:

Even so, he can't help thinking about paper customers paying more because of the tariffs. Maybe those companies will have to cut jobs. Maybe someone, somewhere else, will feel the pain.

"I don't have the answers to this problem," LaRue said. But this time, he added, "it's not going to be our people that has to pay."

Full article here.