[CTC] Sen. Warren on NAFTA deal

[Arthur Stamoulis]

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/01/03/elizabeth-warren-wbz-tv-interview-president-donald-trump-iran-general-qassem-soleimani-jon-keller/ <https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/01/03/elizabeth-warren-wbz-tv-interview-president-donald-trump-iran-general-qassem-soleimani-jon-keller/>
 
Elizabeth Warren Says Killing Of Iran General Part Of ‘Escalating’ Attacks From Trump
By Jon Keller
 01/03/2020
...

But a telling moment in the interview came when we asked if she will vote for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the NAFTA update that won broad bipartisan support in the House late last year and has the endorsement of major labor unions.

“Workers have had the legs taken out from underneath them and this agreement makes improvements,” she said. “It’s gonna help open up some markets for farmers, they need that stability. It’s gonna help with enforceable labor standards and that’s gonna be useful. We really need trade negotiations going forward that make sure anyone who wants access to our markets is actually helping us in the fight against climate change and helping build an economy that works for everybody in the US.”

By contrast, Sen. Bernie Sanders, perhaps her most important competitor in New Hampshire, where the economy is closely tied to international trade, adamantly opposes the new deal, saying in a statement that “a re-negotiated NAFTA must stop the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, end the destructive race to the bottom, protect the environment, and lower the outrageously high price of prescription drugs. Clearly, Trump’s NAFTA 2.0 does not meet these standards.”

“How does that illustrate the difference between you and him?” Warren was asked Friday.

“I want to see improvement for our farmers and workers. It’s not as much improvement as I’d like to see but right now they’re in a terrible hole where Donald Trump has put them. I want to get them out of that hole.”

“And the contrast with Sanders is?”

“Well, Bernie sees this differently, obviously…. you’ll have to ask Bernie his reasons.”

That non-response was typical of Warren’s campaign-long reluctance to engage with Sanders (and he with her). But it also seemed like a missed opportunity to draw a respectful contrast on an issue of great economic importance to voters, a comparison that might have helped deflect the criticism that Warren is too confrontational to govern properly from her onto him.

And with less than forty days to go until New Hampshire voters must decide between the two leaders of the party’s left wing, time is running out.


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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