Feb. 18 - Barack Obama: "NAFTA's shortcomings were evident when signed and we must now amend the agreement to fix them."

Posted: 2/18/2009 Read selected Obama campaign statements on U.S. trade and globalization policy (PDF) Read Public Citizen's report Election 2008: Fair Trade Gets an Upgrade (PDF) Trade as an election issue coverage at Eyes On Trade More coverage of trade as an election issue

President Obama promised to renegotiate parts of NAFTA during the U.S. Democratic presidential primaries, which turned into a multi-month anti-NAFTA-off, with candidates competing to be the most critical of the pact (for example). Now-President Obama has reaffirmed his plan to renegotiate NAFTA. During the campaign, he laid out which NAFTA terms need a rewrite:

• FOREIGN INVESTOR PRIVILEGES Obama answered "yes" to the question (PDF): "Will you commit to renegotiate NAFTA to eliminate its investor rules that allow private enforcement by foreign investors of these investor privileges in foreign tribunals and that give foreign investors greater rights than are provided by the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by our Supreme Court thus promoting offshoring?" He also said (PDF): "While NAFTA gave broad rights to investors, it paid only lip service to the rights of labor and the importance of environmental protection... We should amend NAFTA to make clear that fair laws and regulations written to protect citizens in any of the three countries cannot be overridden simply at the request of foreign investors."
• LABOR RIGHTS "We'll add binding obligations to protect the right to collective bargaining and other core labor standards recognized by the International Labor Organization. And I will add enforceable measures to NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO), CAFTA [Central America Free Trade Agreement] and other Free Trade Agreements (FTA's) currently in effect." (From this statement [PDF].) "The rights of working people should be equal to those of commercial interests and their protections in trade agreements should be the same. Again, this was a fundamental failing in the NAFTA and CAFTA agreements." (From this statement [PDF].)
• ENVIRONMENT "We must add binding environmental standards so that companies from one country cannot gain an economic advantage by destroying the environment." (From this statement [PDF].) "The protection of the environment is just as critical as the protection of commercial interests and must be subject to the same mechanism for protection." (From this statement [PDF].)
• PROCUREMENT Obama answered yes to the question (PDF): "Do you support renegotiating trade agreements so they will allow us to use "Buy America" and "Buy Local" procurement policies?"
• AGRICULTURE AND IMMIGRATION In a Fortune Magazine interview, Obama said "not only did [NAFTA] have an adverse affect on certain communities that saw jobs move down to Mexico but for example our agricultural section pretty much devastated a much less efficient Mexican farming system. But from a pure economic, you know if you're just an economist looking at this in an abstract way you would say well a more efficient producer displaced a less efficient producer in Mexico, there's nothing wrong with that. As a practical matter those are millions of people in Mexico who are displaced. Many of whom now are moving up to the United States, contributing to the immigration concerns that people are feeling. And so, those human factors should be taken into account. They may not override or[sic] every single decision that we make in respect to trade, but to pretend those costs aren't there, that those costs aren't real, and my job as president to take those into account, I think, does no service to free trade. And its part of what has fed the protection incentive and the anti-immigration incentive that is out there in both parts and you know I think that if we manage trade more effectively, if we're better partners, if we are thinking about the dislocations that occurs as a consequence of it, if were true to our belief that labor and environmental standards should be a part of raising living standards around the world instead of a race to the bottom, then we can have free trade and it will be sustainable and we will have political support over the long run."

There are high public expectations surrounding President Obama's NAFTA renegotiation plans. Nearly three-quarters of Americans believe that a "free trade agreement" has had a negative effect on their families. (Rasmussen Poll, June 2008). Majorities oppose NAFTA across every demographic with Catholic, swing, independent and Hispanics voters among the most anti-NAFTA blocs. (Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, September 2008) GOP voters, by a two-to-one majority, agree that "[f]oreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy, because imports from abroad have reduced demand for American-made goods, cost jobs here at home, and produced potentially unsafe products." (Wall Street Journal-NBC News Poll [PDF], September 2007.)

As well, the composition of Congress has been transformed over the past two elections regarding trade policy and politics. From both chambers of Congress and from traditionally "free trade" Oregon and Florida to Colorado and New Mexico, successful candidates in the 2008 election races ran on a platform of fundamental overhaul of U.S. trade and globalization policies including a growing number of Republicans, with a net increase in Congress of at least 35 fair-trade supporters. In the last two election cycles combined (PDF), 72 House and Senate members who campaigned against NAFTA and other elements of the failed status-quo trade model replaced those who had voted for NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO etc.

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