Donald Trump smacked Hillary Clinton down on the issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement approved in 1994 by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, as they repeatedly clawed at each other over trade issues during their first debate Monday night.
“Look at all of these places where so many of their jobs are leaving. They’re gone,” Trump said. “Hillary, I ask you this. You’ve been doing this for 30 years. Why are you just thinking about these solutions right now? For 30 years you’ve been doing it, and now you’re just thinking about solutions? I will back jobs. You can’t bring back jobs.”
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“Not quite that long,” Clinton responded before invoking her husband’s experience. “I think my husband did a pretty good job in the 1990s. I think a lot about what worked and how we can make it work again.”
“Well, he approved NAFTA,” Trump retorted.
“Well, that is your opinion,” Clinton shot back.
Trump also accused her of backing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal that the Obama administration wants Congress to approve, saying she called it “the gold standard.”
Clinton said he was taking her out of context, that she had in fact “hoped” that TPP would be the gold standard but once it was completed, she determined that would be a bad deal.
“Whose fault is that? It is President Obama’s?” Trump asked repeatedly. Clinton did not respond.
Trade is a case in which both candidates have roughly the same stance. At issue is which one is more dedicated to it. Trump is a long-time trade skeptic who has called the Trans-Pacific Partnership a “terrible one-sided deal that … enriches other countries at our expense” and promised to “rip up” NAFTA should he get elected.
After initially resisting calls to take a position on TPP, Clinton announced last year that she also opposes TPP, saying that she was “worried” its terms gave too much latitude to drug companies. She has shied away from addressing NAFTA.
TPP would lower tariffs and other trade barriers among a dozen Pacific Rim nations. Despite Obama’s support for it Democrats such as Clinton are under heavy pressure from liberal activists, particularly organized labor, to oppose it. The activists argue the deal would hurt the economy and allow businesses to more easily outsource jobs. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is also a skeptic and has said it will not be brought up in the Senate this year.
Clinton’s opposition drew praise from groups such as the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, but many on the Left remain skeptical. Several unions still blame President Bill Clinton for union job losses following his signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement in 1993. Hillary Clinton helped to negotiate TPP as Obama’s secretary of state and resisted taking a position on the deal for several months in 2015, only coming out against it after she faced an unexpectedly tough primary challenge from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
During the Democratic National Convention in July, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time member of the Clintons’ inner circle, indicated that she might flip on TPP after the election. “I worry that if we don’t do TPP, at some point China’s going to break the rules, but Hillary understands this,” McAuliffe said, adding, “Once the election’s over, and we sit down on trade, people understand a couple things we want to fix on it but going forward we got to build a global economy.”
The Clinton campaign said McAuliffe was “absolutely wrong” that she would change her opinion and Clinton’s labor allies such as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka have worked to soothe fears on the Left. Nevertheless, the situation has many liberals worried that Trump, who has been pitching himself to a blue-collar audience with a pitch of economic populism, could gain the edge on the issue. Trump alluded to that is his comments.
Trump has vulnerabilities on the issue, too. The Clinton campaign has run ads featuring a 2012 appearance the businessman made on David Letterman’s show where the host skewered him for the several clothing items bearing his name that were manufactured abroad.
