Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the like Republican nominee, had tough words for Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., saying their anti-NAFTA stance may have a ripple effect in support for global anti-terror efforts.
During the Democratic presidential debate this week, Clinton said she would tell the leaders of Mexico and Canada, "We will opt out of NAFTA unless we renegotiate it, and we renegotiate on terms that are favorable to all of America."
Obama agreed, saying, "I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced."
Ever since that debate, McCain, a strong supporter of NAFTA -- which the U.S. Department of Commerce said has resulting in a doubling of U.S. exports to Canada and Mexico ever since it was signed into law in 1993 -- has been comparing Clinton and Obama to the protectionists of yesteryear, repeatedly discussing the 1930 Tariff Act pushed by Sen. Reed Smoot, R-Utah, and Rep. Willis C. Hawley, R-Ore.
Thursday, after Canadian television reported that a senior member of Obama's campaign team has reached out to the Canadian ambassador to the United States to warn him not to take Obama's anti-NAFTA rhetoric seriously -- a report that both Obama and the Canadian Embassy denied -- McCain attacked Obama as duplicitous.
"I don't think it's appropriate to go to Ohio and tell people one thing while your aide is calling the Canadian ambassador and telling him something else," McCain told reporters Thursday. "I certainly don't think that's straight talk."
McCain first made the new line of attack tying NAFTA to the war on terror during his town hall meeting Friday morning saying, "One of our greatest assets we have in Afghanistan today, frankly, are our Canadian friends. It's very controversial in Canada, their commitment and the suffering and the losses we have faced. … So what do we do? The two Democrat candidates for president say that they're going to unilaterally … abrogate the North American Free Trade Agreement."
After a reporter noted that the Canadian government had recently announced troops would leave Afghanistan by 2011, McCain said that date was a long time away, and the United States would continue to discuss Canada's role.
Bret Hovell contributed to this report.
Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.
