There's an upcoming piece on Obama in Fortune magazine, where he talks about trade issues. Here are some snippets about it on Fortune's web site. Fortune characterizes his views as "NAFTA not so bad after all." A lot of people are talking about it already (here's a criticism of what's currently posted about the interview on the Fortune web site, saying that Fortune has distorted his views). The Obama campaign has issued its own response to the Fortune article as well. Here's a quote from the campaign's version of what Obama said:
"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 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."
The NY Times had a piece on both candidate's trade views. I found this last bit interesting:
Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, a Democrat, was asked whether Mr. Obama, if elected, would have the United States withdraw from Nafta if he were not satisfied with any renegotiated deal. “That’s just not going to happen,” he said. “It’s beyond the realm of any real possibility that people are going to stomp away from the table and one of the countries is going to walk away from Nafta.”
