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Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) have engaged in a spirited battle over who is the bigger opponent of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in the days leading up to the Ohio primary.
But a close examination of the rival presidential candidates’ voting records and their responses to questionnaires filled out for groups critical of free trade agreements shows little policy difference between Obama and Clinton.
It also reflects that they have sometimes been more supportive of trade than their rhetoric suggests in recent days on the stump in Ohio, where the manufacturing base is in a decline and NAFTA is practically a dirty word.
Both candidates were among the 12 Senate Democrats to vote in favor of a free-trade agreement with Oman in 2006 that was negotiated by the Bush administration. That deal did not include tougher labor and environmental language that House Democrats demanded to include in trade deals after winning back the House majority.
Both also said they would support a deal with Peru last year that included the tougher standards, although Clinton and Obama missed the Senate vote because they were out campaigning. Former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), then running neck and neck with Clinton and Obama for the Iowa caucuses, criticized both for their positions on Peru.
On the campaign trail, both candidates have threatened to renegotiate NAFTA, worrying free-trade supporters on K Street and Wall Street. What is unclear is whether the tough campaign talk coming from both candidates will be matched by policy if either is elected to the White House.
That issue has intensified in recent days, with the Clinton campaign attacking Obama over a memo that circulated in the Canadian government following a meeting between Canadian consulate officials and Obama campaign adviser Austan Goolsbee.
The memo, written by a Canadian official after the meeting, quoted Goolsbee as saying that the emerging protectionist sentiment should be viewed primarily as political posturing rather than a clear articulation of policy plans, according to a report by the Associated Press, which obtained the memo.
Goolsbee told the AP the memo inaccurately portrayed his private discussion with Canadian officials, and that the comment about political posturing was the Canadian official’s language and not his.
Separately, the Canadian embassy released a statement that said the memo produced by Canada’s Consulate General in Chicago did not intend to convey “in any way” that Obama was taking a different position publicly from views expressed in private on NAFTA.
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