Obama backs away from reforming free trade deal
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
May 18, 2009
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| U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told reporters last month that President Barack Obama will look at all options in relation to the United States’ role in NAFTA. (AP photo) |
Congressional Democrats from economically struggling regions are getting frustrated as President Barack Obama backs away from campaign promises to renegotiate NAFTA.
“I am greatly disappointed that the administration seems to have backpedaled on trade, specifically on the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” said Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine., who says his state has lost thousands of jobs because of NAFTA. “President Obama campaigned on this issue, and I’m disappointed that he’s walking away from that commitment.”
Just last month, Obama’s trade representative, Ron Kirk, backed off the much tougher stance on the 15-year-old trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada that the president took last year as he vied for votes in some of the most economically depressed areas of the country.
“The president has said we will look at all options,” Kirk told reporters in April. “But I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement.”
Kirk’s statement dealt a blow to senators such as Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., who blame NAFTA for destroying the manufacturing economies in their states.
“I’m disappointed,” Brown said. “There is pent-up demand for a new approach that starts with fixing what is not working, including NAFTA.”
Kirk’s words also surprised Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, who accompanied candidate Obama last year though places like Youngstown and Toledo, which she says have been devastated by cheap Mexican imports.
When Obama was trying unsuccessfully to close the gap on Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Ohio Democratic primary, he pushed hard against the trade agreement Clinton’s husband had championed.
Obama not only verbally promised voters there a NAFTA re-do, he did it in writing. “Bad Trade Deals Hit Ohio Harder Than Most States and Only Barack Obama Consistently Opposed NAFTA,” declared an Obama campaign leaflet picturing a shuttered factory.
“He made those statements in the Youngstown area,” Kaptur recalled. “And when these words are heard, they mean something. Now people are waiting for the results of that.”
In December, Obama decided to appoint Kirk to the job of U.S. trade representative. The former mayor of Dallas is a vocal supporter of NAFTA, as trade with Mexico has created jobs in Texas and a steady stream of truck traffic through his city.
In February, anti-NAFTA Democrats bent Obama’s ear on the matter at the Democratic retreat in Williamsburg, Va. To their horror, one witness said, Obama listened to their arguments, then simply blurted out “We can’t stop trade.”
An undeterred Democrat responded, “The option isn’t no trade, it’s balanced trade.”
But as comprehensive reform for health care and energy consume the legislative calendar, optimism for a NAFTA rewrite is fading.
“There is no way the Obama administration is going to reopen NAFTA,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic presidential candidate and staunch opponent of the trade agreement. “The candidates always say that.”
