Obama Tries Selling Trade Deal as the Anti-NAFTA
Published at
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) — President Obama went straight into the progressive lions’ den Thursday to sell the Pacific trade deal he’s trying to pass: his old campaign organization-turned-advocacy-group, Organizing for Action.
His goal was clear: convince the audience at the spring meeting that this is the best possible trade negotiation, with stringent labor and environment requirements built in.
Boiled down: it isn’t the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“I’ve been listening to this debate, I’ve got some good friends who are opposed to this trade agreement but when I ask specifically what you oppose, they start talking about NAFTA,” he said. “And I’m thinking, well I had just come out of law school when NAFTA was passed! That’s not the trade agreement I’m passing!”
Labor unions and other progressives remain opposed to the Bill Clinton-brokered North American Free Trade Agreement because they say it stole U.S. jobs, furthered income inequality and widened the trade deficit with Mexico and Canada.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.