It’s no surprise that Ohio voters oppose NAFTA.  The state has lost more than 240,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000 and, according to exit polls Tuesday, “eight in 10 Democratic primary voters feel international trade agreements take more jobs away than they create.”

 The prevailing wisdom has been that Texas is different, however.  Because it’s a border state, many analysts presumed that the Lone Star state has a more favorable view of NAFTA than some of its northern compatriots.  Actually, it turns out that Texans holds NAFTA in low regard, too.  In the same poll, a full six out of ten Texas voters said that NAFTA “hurts jobs.”

The people get it.  The know that unbalanced trade agreements are dismantling U.S. manufacturing.  And so ManufactureThis expects a lot more talk on trade policy as the primary season continues to drag along. 

And it’s not just NAFTA.  Action on China is needed, too, to address illegal foreign dumping, subsidies, and currency manipulation.  Vague promises that NAFTA needs to be “renegotiated” just won’t cut it.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 12:17 am and is filed under Manufacturing in the U.S., Enforcing Trade Laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.