GOP Debate in Miami: on Free Trade

Ted Cruz: I always opposed TPP, but I supported TPA

CRUZ: Actually that's incorrect. There are two different agreements. There's TPA and TPP. I opposed TPP and have always opposed TPP, which is what you asked about. Free trade, when we open up foreign markets, helps Americans. But we're getting killed in international trade right now.We're driving jobs overseas.

FACTCHECK: No one explained the acronyms, so we looked them up. According to Mother Jones magazine:

TPP = Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade treaty between the US and a bunch of other countries around the Pacific Rim. It's been under negotiation for years.

TPA = Trade Promotion Authority, aka "fast track." This comes before the TPP vote, and guarantees that the treaty text will be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote with no amendments allowed. Without it, the treaty is dead, since other countries won't allow the US to unilaterally makes changes.

Donald Trump: I take advantage of devalued Chinese currency; but stop them

KASICH: Trade has to be balanced & we have to make sure that when we see a violation, like some country dumping their products into this country, I will shut down those imports.

Q [to Trump]: Your campaign platform is inconsistent with how you run your businesses: your companies manufacture clothing in China and Mexico.

TRUMP: Because of the monetary devaluations that other countries are constantly doing and brilliantly doing against us, it's very, very hard for our companies in this country, in our country, to compete. So I will take advantage of it; they're the laws. But I'm the one that knows how to change it. Nobody else on this dais knows how to change it like I do, believe me.

KASICH: They can't manipulate their currency. That will not be anything that I would allow them to get away with. And if I saw them doing it, I would take immediate action and make sure that the American worker is protected.

Donald Trump: It's not free trade with China; it's stupid trade

TRUMP: The 45% tariff is a threat. It's not a tax, it was a threat. It will be a tax if they don't behave. Take China as an example. I have many friends, great manufacturers, they want to go into China. They can't. China won't let them. We talk about free trade. It's not tree free trade; it's stupid trade. China dumps everything that they have over here. No tax, no anything. We can't get into China. The best manufacturers, when they get in, they have to pay a tremendous tax. The 45% is a threat that if they don't behave, we will tax you. It doesn't have to be 45, it could be less. But it has to be something because our country & our trade & our deals and most importantly our jobs are going to hell.??

John Kasich: Shut down trade when countries dump in America

KASICH: I grew up in a blue collar family. And the simple fact of the matter is that of course we're sensitive about trade. One out of five Americans works in a job connected to trade; 38 million Americans are connected to it. But my position has always been we want to have free trade, but fair trade. And I've been arguing all along that it is absolutely critical that when other countries break those agreements, we don't turn the process over to some international bureaucrat. Trade, though, has to be balanced and we have to make sure that when we see a violation, like some country dumping their products into this country, believe me as president, I will stand up and I will shut down those imports because they're a violation of the agreement we have and the American worker expects us to stand up.

Ted Cruz: Import taxes are paid by consumers, not by China

Donald TRUMP: The 45% tariff is a threat. It will be a tax if they don't behave. China dumps everything that they have over here. We can't get into China. The 45% is a threat that if they don't behave, we will tax you.

CRUZ: It's not China that pays the tax. It's you, the working men and women. So ask yourself at home: How is this helping you? If your wages have been stagnant for 20 years; if you can't pay the bills, how does it help you to have a president come and say, "I'm going to put a 45% tax on diapers, on automobiles, on clothing." That hurts you. It's why we've got to get beyond rhetoric of "China bad," and actually get to "how do you solve the problem?" Because this solution would hurt jobs and hurt hard-working taxpayers in America.