[Baltimore Sun] Trump and Harris’ stances on trade, from NAFTA to USMCA
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Former President Donald Trump has made trade deals a key point in his bid for the White House. This comes after Trump dismantled NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and replaced it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during his presidency in 2020.
For a quick history lesson, NAFTA was a three-country deal negotiated between the U.S., Canada and Mexico that reduced tariffs and allowed these countries to trade freely with each other. It was signed into law in 1994 by President Bill Clinton.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “It contributed to an explosion of trade between the three countries and the integration of their economies but was criticized in the United States for contributing to job losses and outsourcing.”
It’s been 30 years since NAFTA was signed into law, and it has been highly criticized by both Republicans and Democrats. Critics say that even though it created a huge economic boom in trade, it hurt American jobs. The Economic Policy Institute estimates NAFTA caused the loss of around 700,000 U.S. jobs from 1994 to 2013, many of those from companies moving to Mexico.
Unlike NAFTA, the USMCA requires 75% of a car’s parts to be made in North America, while also strengthening environmental and labor laws and adding rules for digital trade.
According to Investopedia, “One of the most significant portions of the USMCA stipulates new trade regulations for automobiles and automotive parts.”
As far as whether this is a better deal, it depends on whom you ask, but it did receive majority support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Trump has said the global trading system is rigged against the U.S. and is responsible for U.S. manufacturing jobs going down the drain. His current campaign platform promises to get the U.S. back to being the manufacturing superpower of the world by rebalancing trade toward more domestic production.
According to Trump’s campaign website, “The Trump Reciprocal Trade Act will put America first and continue President Trump’s unparalleled trade success that reduced America’s trade deficit, grew wages, and created more than half a million new manufacturing jobs.”
As for Vice President Kamala Harris, she believes all major trade deals need to consider the workers and the climate, so they need to include protections. Harris has also criticized tariffs but says the U.S. should de-risk trade with China.
According to Harris’ campaign website, “Vice President Harris will not tolerate unfair trade practices from China or any competitor that undermines American workers.”
Under the Biden administration, they oversaw the creation of massive subsidies for green energy, infrastructure and technology to incentivize companies to protect the environment.
Senator J.D. Vance criticized Harris for voting to keep NAFTA in place, and technically, yes, she did. Harris was one of only 10 senators who voted against Trump’s USMCA agreement that replaced NAFTA.
Harris says she voted against it because the new agreement didn’t go far enough to replace NAFTA and protect the environment. One could compare this instance to House Republicans who shot down President Biden’s border bill earlier this year; they said it didn’t go far enough to protect the border.
Have a news tip? Contact Emma Withrow at ewithrow@sbgtv.com or at x.com/emma_withrow. Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.
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