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TMCNet: EDITORIAL: Trade winds: Facts undermine attacks on NAFTA

[April 25, 2008]

EDITORIAL: Trade winds: Facts undermine attacks on NAFTA

(Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Apr. 25--Canada and Mexico have a ready answer for Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who've suggested they'll try to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement if elected president: Forget about it.

Meeting with President Bush this week, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon rejected the idea their countries would go along with reopening NAFTA for major revisions.

Calderon said junking NAFTA would condemn North America to "complete backwardness" in the global trading market. For Mexico, he said it would mean "a sudden loss of economic opportunities that would lead to even greater migratory pressure against the United States." Harper also defended NAFTA as important for jobs and prosperity on both sides of the border.

It's a message the Democratic candidates and members of Congress should heed.

In that context, Bush criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for shelving a free trade deal with Colombia. The agreement would open Colombian markets to more than 80 percent of U.S. exports immediately, with the remaining tariffs phased out over 10 years. More than 90 percent of Colombian exports enter the U.S. duty free. As Bush said, squelching the deal hurts U.S. businesses and workers.

A larger concern is that the Democratic Party appears to be embracing protectionism, which is bad for U.S. exports -- goods and services and hemispheric influence.

Surely, Canada and Mexico watched with interest as Colombia, one of the few good friends the United States has in South America, got the bum's rush after negotiating an equitable trade deal in good faith.

Understandably, Canada and Mexico aren't going there. NAFTA is a done deal and has produced good results for them and the United States -- facts that make the anti-trade rhetoric from the campaign trail and Congress so much hot air.

To see more of The Oklahoman, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsok.com.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Oklahoman
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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