The voters scoffed at me, surveying their decaying porches with the decaying economy all around them. They blamed trade deals, especially the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for the loss of good manufacturing jobs in the area, and laws giving steel and auto plants the chance to move jobs overseas. One after another, each voter reminded me that both parties supported the crappy NAFTA deal that got us into this mess. How could we trust any of them to get us out?
A decade later, just after the 20th anniversary of NAFTA, President Obama is marking the disastrous legacy of free trade policies by working with Republicans to push for even more bad trade deals that would benefit big businesses at the expense of America’s economy and workers.
President Obama has outlined an ambitious agenda to help the middle class. But his eagerness to find some area of compromise with Republicans in the form of trade policy risks undermining all his other plans.
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