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Can Democratic Elections Solve a Civil War?

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International trends / Comment

USA 2008: the Democrats, free trade and Latin America

25/04/2008 By Robert Matthews

The Democratic and Republican presidential aspirants have radically different views on NAFTA and free trade. Senator John McCain has demonstrated a consistent belief in the virtually unalloyed benefits of free trade agreements to all concerned. The Democrats have been more critical, and increasingly so since many of them signed on during the Clinton administration’s push for NAFTA in 1994.

The Democratic contenders for the US presidency, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, currently have strikingly similar positions on the issue of free trade in Latin America. Their feelings are mixed on the free trade issue, not least because they also receive funding from industries in the export sector.

They have rarely focused the discussion on the social and economic effects of free trade and globalisation in Latin America; rather their focus is the putative negative impact on US workers. This can appear more of a campaign ploy to win back those blue collar families in the hard-hit industrial heartland.

The two have voted pro and con free trade agreements, supporting Peru’s FTA and opposing CAFTA; they have also promised to review the NAFTA accord and possibly amend the agreement to improve labour standards.

This article parses some of the differences between the two with the aim of offering some idea of how each might act on the issue as president.


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Keywords

Globalization Latin America & Caribbean NAFTA North America Political economy United States

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Bio author: Robert Matthews

Robert Matthews, Associate Fellow of FRIDE, holds a Ph.D in Latin American history from New York University, where he was a teacher at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. For twenty years was a collaborator with the Peace Research Center - Centro de Investigación para la Paz (CIP) - in Madrid, specializing in United States foreign policy.