Fourteen years after Canada, the U.S. and Mexico hailed the formation of the world's largest trading bloc, the North American Free Trade Agreement has come back to bite Hillary Clinton.
Barack Obama
is aggressively using Clinton's past praise of NAFTA and the efforts of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, to push the agreement through the U.S. Congress to try to deliver a knockout blow to Clinton in this economically ravaged state.
Ohio and Texas could push Clinton to the sidelines and give the nomination to Obama if he can prevail next Tuesday when the two states, with 334 delegates at stake, join two other smaller states in the biggest primary day since Super Tuesday.
Both Democratic presidential candidates have said they would like to amend or review NAFTA to protect U.S. interests and improve labour and environment standards, but Obama has essentially accused Clinton of rewriting history in her criticism of the deal here, where it is blamed for the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
"Ten years after NAFTA passed, Senator Clinton
said it was good for America," Obama said yesterday in Lorain, Ohio.
"Well, I don't think NAFTA has been good for America -- and I never have."
Neither has specifically said how they would amend the pact. Ottawa and Mexico City would have to agree to reopen NAFTA.
"Senator Clinton .
. . has essentially presented herself as co-president during the Clinton years. So the notion that you can selectively pick what you take credit for and then run away from what isn't politically convenient, that doesn't make sense," Obama told supporters.
During a weekend campaign stop in Ohio, Clinton accused Obama of using "Karl Rove tactics" in distributing a flyer about her support of NAFTA, a reference to the former political guru of President George W. Bush and the man Democrats love to demonize.
Ohio has shed more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, but t's not clear how much NAFTA is responsible for the job losses.
When NAFTA came into force, Ohio's biggest private employer was General Motors. Today it is Wal-Mart.
The state unemployment rate has rise from about four per cent in 2000 to six per cent today.
But as the Columbus Dispatch pointed out yesterday, Ohio's manufacturing output has risen 12 per cent since 2000, indicating companies are more adept at production with fewer workers. The steady decline in manufacturing jobs here also coincides with China's entry into the World Trade Organization.Record (Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario)
