McCain Claims Dems' NAFTA Opposition Hurts Anti-Terror Effort

ROUND ROCK, Texas, Feb. 29, 2008 — -- Continuing to assail the anti-NAFTA rhetoric of his would-be Democratic opponents, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Friday their pledges to renegotiate the free trade agreement would hurt international relations and the war in Afghanistan.

As competition heats up in the Democratic primary in Ohio, Sens. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., have ratcheted up their rhetoric against the trade agreement that eliminated most tariffs between the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Unions say NAFTA, signed into law by President Clinton, has cost the United States at least 1 million jobs, around 200,000 in Ohio.

Polls indicate approximately one-quarter of Democratic voters in Ohio are part of union households.

McCain suggested that Obama's and Clinton's threats to walk away from the treaty unless U.S. demands are met would have far-reaching ramifications.

"If we announce that we're going to unilaterally change a treaty or suspend it … obviously that I think it can affect Canadian public opinion adversely; in fact, I've been told that by my Canadian friends and colleagues," he told reporters after a town hall meeting at the corporate headquarters of Dell Inc.

"The Canadians are now supplying brave young Canadians to the fight in Afghanistan. One of our priorities is to try to get more cooperation from our allies throughout the world.

"All these things are interconnected," he said, suggesting such a demand would influence Canadian public opinion, which "could have an adverse effect on the situation with regards to their commitment to Afghanistan, which we all know is a matter of controversy among the Canadian people."

Pushing back against the idea that a Democratic president would help restore worldwide public opinion about the United States, McCain also used this issue to paint the Democratic presidential candidates as turning a blind eye to world opinion.

"When someone, as Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton have said, would 'renegotiate' the treaty that went through years of negotiation … with our leading trading partner, Canada, without consulting or without the agreement of our Canadian partners," he said, "I think it sends the wrong message to the world."