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Kamala Harris on Free TradeDemocratic candidate for President (withdrawn); California Senator |
HARRIS: My trade policy, under a Harris administration, is always going to be about saying, we need to export American products, not American jobs. And to do that, we have to have a meaningful trade policy. I am not a protectionist Democrat. Look, we need to sell our stuff. And that means we need to sell it to people overseas. That means we need trade policies that allow that to happen.
Q: What about China?
HARRIS: It's a complicated relationship. We have to hold China accountable. They steal our products, including our intellectual property. They dump substandard products into our economy. They need to be held accountable. We also need to partner with China on climate and the crisis that that presents. We need to partner with China on the issue of North Korea.
15 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Joe Biden; Cory Booker; Pete Buttigieg; Julian Castro; Bill de Blasio; Kirsten Gillibrand; John Hickenlooper; Jay Inslee; Amy Klobuchar; Beto O`Rourke; Tim Ryan; Bernard Sanders; Eric Swalwell; Elizabeth Warren; Marianne Williamson.
The majority of Democratic candidates want changes made to the agreement before it comes up for a vote in Congress, focusing on labor & environmental standards.
FIVE CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Joseph Biden, Jr.; Steve Bullock; Peter Buttigieg; Kirsten Gillibrand; Beto O`Rourke.
The majority of Democrats have broadly slammed Trump's use of tariffs. Candidates such as Sens. Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand have criticized the president's move to impose tariffs on China and U.S. allies, arguing they hurt American consumers, workers and companies.
We need our leaders to speak the truth that we have an economy where the cost of health care, housing, and education are going up, but paychecks aren't growing fast enough to keep up.
When you hear claims about how the economy is doing great, don't forget the working and middle-class families who are struggling, the teachers who are working two and three jobs--all while this Administration gives away a trillion dollars to big corporations.
When you hear claims about rewriting rules and cutting red tape, don't forget that means workers will have fewer workplace safety protections. And remember that those rules are being rewritten to help big corporations and powerful interests.
When you hear claims about how America is stronger in the world--don't forget the farmers and consumers hurt by this Administration's trade wars.
Ms. Harris had previously been circumspect on the trade deal, but Rep. Sanchez's entry into the race has created a situation in which neither candidate wants to risk alienating the Democratic base on such a highly charged issue. If there were any doubt that both candidates had made the politically safe decision, they were quickly put to rest by the rapturous response that Sen. Elizabeth Warren elicited when she told the crowd that TPP would "leave American workers in the dirt."
Summary from Congressional Record and Wikipedia:Vote to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and establish the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Rather than a wholly new agreement, it has been characterized as "NAFTA 2.0"; final terms were negotiated on September 30, 2018 by each country. The agreement is scheduled to come into effect on July 1, 2020.
Case for voting YES by Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL); (Dec. 19, 2019)The USMCA includes stronger protections for American workers and enforceable labor standards, as well as environmental protections. It eliminates the Trump Administration's threat that the US could walk away entirely from the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, which would devastate US jobs and our economy.
Case for voting NO by Jared Huffman (D-CA); (Dec. 19, 2019) Democratic negotiators did a lot to improve Donald Trump's weak trade deal, especially in terms of labor standards and enforcement, but the final deal did not reach the high standard that I had hoped for. The NAFTA renegotiations were a once-in-a-generation opportunity to lift labor and environmental standards across the continent--to lock in serious climate commitments with two of our largest trading partners and dramatically improve labor standards and enforcement to slow the rise of outsourcing.
Legislative outcome: Bill Passed (Senate) (89-10-1) - Jan. 16, 2020; bill Passed (House) (385-41-5) - Dec. 19, 2019; signed at the G20 Summit simultaneously by President Trump, Mexican President Enrique Nieto, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nov. 30, 2018