[CTC] Sens. Sanders & Klobuchar on NAFTA in the DemDebate

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/democratic-debate

SEN. SANDERS
You’re talking to somebody, who unlike some of my colleagues here, voted against NAFTA. Voted against PNTR with China.  Two agreements that cost us over 4 million decent-paying jobs.  Now I don’t agree with your statement that people think this is going to be a great job creator.  This is a modest improvement over what we have right now.  It would allow, hopefully, Mexican workers to organize into unions — independent unions — and negotiate decent contracts.  But at the end of the day, in my view, it is not going to stop outsourcing.  It is not going to stop corporations from moving to Mexico where manufacturing workers make less than $2 an hour.  What we need is a trade policy that stands up for workers, that stands up for farmers, and — by the way, the word climate change, to the best of my knowledge, is not even discussed in this new NAFTA agreement at all, which is an outrage.  So, no, I will not be voting for this agreement, although it makes some modest improvements.

SEN. KLOBUCHAR
I have a different view.  I’ll go with my friend Sherrod Brown, who has voted against every trade agreement, and he’s voting for this, and I am too.  And the reason I’m voting for this is that I believe that we have a change with this agreement.  I would not have voted for the agreement that President Trump put forward, but we have better labor standards, better environmental standards, and a better deal when it comes to the pharmaceutical provision, which I also opposed.  Ninety-five percent of our customers are outside of our borders, and we need to make sure that we have trade agreements that are more fair, because if we can encourage Made in America, every time you hold something in your hand that says Made in America, it is the ingenuity of our workers, it is the quality of a product, it is the quality of our workers and it is the hopes and dreams of the American people.  And I think this agreement, while Senator Sanders is correct, there are some issues with it, is much better than the one originally proposed.  And for those farmers in the midwest and for those people that have been hurt by the fact that we will not have a trade segment with Mexico and with Canada and with the United States, I think this is a much better deal.