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Michael Froman to Be Named New United States Trade Representative: Will Froman Bring With Him the NAFTA-Style Trade Policies of His Past or Will He Implement Obama’s Promised Trade Reforms?

Statement of Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch

Note: Today, President Barack Obama will nominate Michael Froman, deputy national security advisor for economic affairs, to be U.S. Trade Representative.

We hope for the best, but given that Michael Froman has been instrumental in pushing Obama’s trade policies backwards to the corporate agenda that Froman also championed during the Clinton administration, this choice doesn’t inspire confidence that the administration will get on track to fulfill President Obama’s 2008 campaign commitment to replace the NAFTA model of trade deals that GOP, Democratic and Independent voters oppose after living with their damaging results.

Based on the outcomes of Froman’s past trade work – a NAFTA under the Clinton administration that cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs and NAFTA-style free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama that in one year have led to an exploding Korea trade deficit and a steady rate of violence against Colombian unionists – folks on Main Street have cause for concern, unlike Froman’s former Wall Street colleagues.

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