Trade
Further information: Free trade and United States free trade agreements| John McCain | Barack Obama | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| McCain is a strong proponent of free trade. He supports the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the existing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization (WTO). He opposes including labor and environmental conditions to trade agreements. | Obama supports expanding trade only if the United States' trade partners place labor and environmental standards on their industries to "level the playing field" for American interests. If elected President, Obama plans to renegotiate NAFTA to include stricter labor and environmental standards for Canada and Mexico. He has criticized the current agreement for not including such standards, and he also voted against and criticized the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) for similar reasons. | ||
| Chuck Baldwin | Bob Barr | Cynthia McKinney | Ralph Nader |
| Baldwin would lead the US out of the North American and the Central America Free Trade Agreements. He would impose a revenue tariff. | Barr's campaign site states that America "should encourage private involvement around the world, particularly through free trade. The most effective way to preserve peace is through an expanding free market, backed by a full range of cultural and other private relationships". | McKinney stresses enacting laws on US corporations to keep labor standards high at home and raise them abroad. She would repeal NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), CAFTA, the Caribbean FTA, and US-Peru FTA. She opposes the guest-worker program as riddled with abuses; supports justice for immigrant workers, and immigrant reform that includes amnesty and a path to legalization for undocumented people who have been living and working in the US for years. | Nader views NAFTA and the WTO as subverting national regulatory agencies. He blames them for diminishing standards of living (i.e. race to the bottom). Nader supports a constitutional amendment asserting the "sovereignty of people over the power of corporations." |
Read more about this topic: Comparison Of United States Presidential Candidates, 2008, Economic Issues
Famous quotes containing the word trade:
“Though I have locked my gate on them
I pity all the young,
I know what devil’s trade they learn
From those they live among,
Their drink, their pitch and toss by day,
Their robbery by night....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Whatever trade one is in, one will find some fault with it.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)