As the bitter Ohio primary contest demonstrated, trade issues have begun to play a large role in the ongoing presidential discourse.  And while the Democratic candidates are talking about revisions to U.S. trade policy, ManufactureThis suggets that they need to offer specifics as to how they’ll address illegal subsidies, dumping, and currency manipulation on the part of China and other trading partners.

In a post-Ohio statement, AAM’s Scott Paul noted: “People are demanding answers.  The candidates need to provide something more than just ‘Let’s renegotiate NAFTA.’  What about China cheating on our trade agreements?  What about enforcing our trade laws?”

 Pennsylvania has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.  As CBS Marketwatch’s Rob Schroeder noted, that means roughly one-fourth of all Pennsylvania manufacturing jobs have disappeared. 

There’s little doubt that trade and manufacturing will continue to be major voter concerns in the upcoming primaries.  The candidates would be wise to offer clear and specific answers as to what action they would take if elected.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 2:19 am and is filed under 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.