Obama Breaks Another Campaign Promise, Won’t Re-Negotiate NAFTA
Remember when, during the election, one of Obama’s chief economic advisers Austan Goolsbee went to Canada and told the Canadians not to worry about NAFTA? That Obama was only sounding anti-NAFTA to pander to the union and anti-trade people in his base? Turns out Goolsbee was right. Obama’s anti-NAFTA talk was just an example of The One saying whatever it took to get elected.
Three cheers for President Obama’s decision, announced quietly on Monday, to repudiate a campaign promise and not press for new labor and environmental regulations in the North American Free Trade Agreement. The last thing the Western Hemisphere needs are more trade barriers that would snarl supply chains and damage commerce.
I’m happy to see Obama walking away from his anti-free trade rhetoric (though I wouldn’t mind seeing NAFTA revisited to make it even more trade friendly, but whatever).
The people who probably aren’t as happy are all the people in his base who were taken in by The One saying one thing and doing another. But then, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Obama, no? His words are pretty, but ultimately they don’t mean much.
Hope and change!
