Rick Perry on Free Trade Republican Governor (TX)

Ex-Im Bank is corrupt; closing it helps our competitiveness

RP: Well, I think we need to be competitive. And I think we need to have a conversation about how we are more competitive by number one, changing our tax policy and changing our regulatory policy so that our companies can be more competitive. But here's what changed me. And I don't think anybody can stand up and defend the Ex-Im Bank after the corruption and fraud became.....

HH: But reform it. Don't end it, reform it.

RP: Well, and you know what? My deal is that sometimes, you've got to threaten people pretty deeply to get their attention, and doing away with them is a very powerful threat.

China practices communism at night & capitalism in daytime

"China's different," Perry said of both countries. "China basically practices communism at night and capitalism in the daytime. There's a chance for our trade to engage with them and possibly change the culture."

NAFTA is largest job stimulus of the decade

"Export markets are the future of agriculture," Perry said in 1994. "NAFTA is one of the tools that we have gotten." In 1993, he praised the GATT Agreement as a "good deal for Texas agriculture". More recently, Perry has said that he will "be urging 'our friends in Washington' not to enact regulations that would hinder free trade.

Perry did support price supports for farmers as a candidate for Agriculture Commissioner in 1990, but he has also bashed Republicans for supporting tariffs on steel.

Welcome market of united Europe & ever-growing China & India

Milk price controls are egregiously interventionist

Hettinga was quoted as saying he "had an awakening.--it's not totally free enterprise in the US." The indefensible price controls enforced by running entrepreneurs like Hettinga out of business mean that Americans pay 26% more for milk than they would otherwise.. In effect, Americans are double-taxed by these left-over New Deal farm policies: we pay higher prices in the store for food, while we pay billions of dollars in taxes to fund the Farm Bill, loaded with pork.

Enforce trade law against subsidized Canadian lumber imports.

• Whereas, the US Department of Commerce has determined that the Canadian provinces subsidize lumber production by selling timber to Canadian lumber companies at non-competitive prices for a fraction of the timber’s market value, and imposed an import duty of 19.3%;
• Whereas, artificially low provincial timber prices, minimum harvesting restrictions and other practices encourage over-harvesting and over-production in Canada to the detriment of US industry, forest land owners, workers and the environment;
• Whereas, these unfair subsidy practices have helped Canadian imports gain an increasing share of the US softwood lumber market, rising 15% from the first to second quarter of 2001;
• Whereas, highly subsidized Canadian lumber imports unfairly compete with US lumber companies and affect thousands of US jobs, and drive down the value of US forest land; Whereas an agreement between the United States and Canada on lumber trade expired in March 2001; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, That the Southern Governor’s Association urges the Administration to continue to enforce fully the current United States trading laws and to encourage open and competitive sales of timber in Canada.

Bound under state commitment to CAFTA.

States' commitments under CAFTA:

Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) compiled a list of the status of each of the 50 states with regards to CAFTA procurement. For states that have rescinded their commitment, we infer that the incumbent governor strongly opposes CAFTA (because the state made a commitment and then un-made it). For states that declined to commit, we infer that the incumbent governor somewhat opposes CAFTA. For states that committed, we infer that the incumbent governor supports CAFTA.

CAFTA is the Central American Free Trade Agreement. CAFTA expands NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement, between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico) to five Central American nations (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua), and the Dominican Republic. It passed Congress on July 27, 2005.

Opposition to CAFTA procurement rules (by Public Citizen): Should an international trade agreement determine how we are allowed to spend our domestic tax dollars? Prior to the passage of CAFTA, the majority of state governments agreed: Subjecting decisions about how to spend state taxpayer dollars to second-guessing by foreign trade tribunals is a bad idea! As a result, a bi-partisan group of governors withdrew their initial agreement to bind their states to comply with CAFTA's procurement rules. Many other governors simply avoided binding their states to CAFTA's procurement rules in the first place. Common state economic development and environmental policies are prohibited by trade agreement procurement rules include:

• Measures to stop the offshoring of state jobs;
• "Buy Local" or "Buy America" policies;
• Preferences for recycled content, renewable energy, and alternative fuel vehicles.