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North American leaders rebuke critics of NAFTA
NEW ORLEANS President Bush and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts yesterday directly challenged talk by Democratic presidential candidates of pulling out of a trade agreement among the three countries.Mexican President Felipe Calderon released the strongest criticism. He said a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would "condemn North America as a region to complete backwardness." "If you were to take a step backwards with regard to NAFTA or free trade, you would be condemning Americans to have one of the least competitive economies in the developed world, while other parts of the world are accelerating their growth," Mr. Calderon said, mentioning the consolidated trade bloc of China, India, Japan and the European Union. The Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, were not mentioned by name, but were in focus during the summit on the day of the Pennsylvania primary. "Now is not the time to renegotiate NAFTA or walk away from NAFTA," Mr. Bush said. "Now is the time to make it work better for all our people. And now is the time to reduce trade barriers worldwide." He pounded the podium several times and pronounced himself "concerned about protectionism in America." Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the benefits of the trade agreement are unquestionable. "I'm confident that when the facts are looked at, any president ... will quickly conclude how critically important NAFTA [is] to jobs and prosperity on both sides of our border," Mr. Harper said. Posted by: Steve White 2008-04-24 |
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