The battle to see which Democratic presidential contender opposes NAFTA more escalated today with a memo obtained by the AP detailing a meeting between a top adviser to Barack Obama and a Canadian diplomat in Chicago in which the adviser is said to have called his candidate’s anti-NAFTA stance “political positioning.”

The memo’s author writes that Obama’s economic adviser Austan Goolsbee “candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged” in the campaign thus far, adding that “he cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political positioning than a clear articulation of policy plans.”

In a press conference with reporters in Toledo, OH this morning, Clinton said “I don’t think people should come to Ohio and tell the people of Ohio one thing and then have your campaign tell a foreign government something else behind closed doors.”

“That’s the kind of difference between talk and action that I’ve been pointing out this entire campaign,” she said. “If you come to Ohio and you both give speeches that are very critical of NAFTA and you send out misleading and false information about my position regarding NAFTA, and then we find out that your chief economic adviser has gone to a foreign government and basically done the old wink-wink, don’t pay any attention this is just political rhetoric, I think that raises serious questions.”

Obama spokesman Bill Burton accused Clinton of a “blatant distortion,” saying she’s “not telling the truth on this story” — but did not attack the veracity of the memo, instead ripping Clinton for calling NAFTA a victory in her autobiography.

done

(more…)

It has been reported in the Canadian press that a senior economic advisor to the Obama campaign spoke with a Canadian government official to assure them that this was just campaign rhetoric. The Obama campaign has dismissed these reports as false over the course of the past two days, but the advisor in question has not yet issued a flat denial.

Today the Clinton campaign alerted reporters to a letter sent to Senator Barack Obama from two Ohio unions about the sincerity of the candidate’s campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA as president. The letter from two union officials sent to Mr. Obama expresses surprise and disappointment that the advisor reportedly met in secret with the Canadian government.

“After a series of misdirections and half-truths, it’s time for you to come clean about your campaign’s communications with the Canadian government about NAFTA. Enough with the non-denial denials and the Washington double-speak,” the letter states.

The letter then asks Senator Obama five questions on the alleged incident and about his true intentions with NAFTA.

Later in the day, the pro-Obama union UNITE HERE fired off its own letter to Senator Clinton on the consistency of her position on the trade agreement. Obama spokesman Bill Burton forwarded the letter via email to reporters covering the Obama campaign.

“We were disappointed to see that you and your supporters continue to make desperate attacks against Senator Obama based on a story from a Canadian TV station that was debunked and retracted as fast as it was reported. Just as you know that this story is false and yet repeat it anyway, you also know that Senator Obama has consistently called for amending the flawed NAFTA agreement passed by the Clinton Administration – which you have called one of the most significant legislative accomplishments of the Clinton years.”

The UNITE HERE authors then ask Clinton two questions of their own, but are probably not expecting a response when they conclude, “We certainly wish it were true that you had been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning – because if you had offered a single public criticism when it was being debated, or urged President Clinton to back away from it, you could have stopped NAFTA from happening to America. Sadly, the record of your long, strong and vocal support of this flawed agreement is painfully clear.”

Read both letters in full below the jump:

(more…)

done

Round Rock, TX – Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are sending “the wrong message to the world” by stating that they will renegotiate NAFTA with Canada, Sen. John McCain said Friday–adding that their trade stances could also lead America’s neighbor to the north to reconsider it’s role in the war on terror.

“I believe there is very little doubt if we say we are going to…change the terms of a treaty that was negotiated for years, signed into law by President Clinton, then I think that could have an adverse affect on the situation as regards to their commitment to Afghanistan,” McCain told a town hall meeting at Dell Computers today.

“I believe that those agreements should be kept…and every time in history that we have practiced protectionism we have paid a very heavy price for it,” McCain added.

Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have ratcheted up their anti-NAFTA rhetoric recently as they compete for votes in next week’s Ohio primary, a state that has been heavily hit by economic losses related to manufacturing jobs moving across the border. Both Democrats said at a debate Tuesday night that they would be willing to use the threat of a NAFTA pullout to demand the Canadians renegotiate the terms of an agreement.

“One of the greatest assets we have in Afghanistan today frankly are our Canadian friends…it can in no way help our relations with Canada in any way if we tell them we are unilaterally going to renegotiate a treaty without their agreement. It’s just a fact,” McCain said, noting that maintaining troops in Afghanistan is a divisive issue for Canadians.

McCain’s criticism on free trade comes after he hammered for Obama for the last two days on the war on terror.