OnTheIssues interviews with 2016 House and Senate candidates: on Free Trade

Zoltan Istvan: Support trade, but expect fewer jobs due to technology

A: Support. We must encourage free trade while understanding that robots and software will replace approximately 90% of all human jobs over the next 25-35 years.

Richard Longstreth: Support & expand free trade

A: Strongly agree.

Thomas Clements: No restrictions on trade, but no corporatism

A: No restrictions, but no corporatism. Free Trade should not have any barriers. Jobs lost are those we don't want.

Alex Merced: Trade with other nations leads to peace & prosperity

A: Trade with other nations leads to peace with other nations and makes all more prosperous.

Phil Anderson: Free trade builds prosperity at home & peace abroad

A: Yes. Free trade builds prosperity at home, and is the best foreign policy as well.

Lester Turilli: Too often, we are short-changed on international trade

A: Trade should not place our country and economy at a disadvantage. I believe in free trade. Countries who trade with the USA should maintain a balanced approach to keeping the agreement fair to both sides.Too often, the United States of America, is being short-changed on international trade.

Derek Dextraze: Support & expand free trade

A: Support

Marcus Bowman: Free trade deals such as TPP are undermining America

A: Support free trade and free markets. Do not support trade deals such as TPP. So-called free trade deals such as TPP are undermining America.

Paul Adams: Tariffs on all big ticket items entering the US

Paul Adams: I am a protectionist, anti-TPP, anti-job exporter

A: I'm totally against it. I am a protectionist, isolationist, anti-TPP, anti-job exporter. We will not survive as a nation if we have no jobs for our people.

Kevin Stine: We need fair trade, not free trade

A: Oppose. We need fair trade, not free trade. Free trade agreements have resulted in businesses shipping jobs overseas, at the cost of the American worker.

Marc Allan Feldman: Trade with other nations is the best way to encourage peace

A: Support. Trade with other nations is the best way to encourage peace, liberty, and progress in the human condition. Limitations on trade should be a decision made by the individual consumers and manufacturers. Individuals and private businesses should not be forced to do business with organizations that pollute, cheat, or abuse their employees.

Mark Stewart: The 1000+ page TPP can't possibly be free trade

A: I fully support free trade. And we don't need elaborate negotiations to do free trade. The 1000+ page TPP can't possibly be free trade. There are clearly restrictions, penalties, and tit-for-tat reciprocity that serves political interests. The proper restrictions are NO restrictions. If a foreign government is subsidizing its industry and "dumping" goods on the USA, that's good for our consumers. They can't do it forever. If a foreign government is keeping US-manufactured products out, we need to "wage peace" with their citizens, that they demand the American stuff (which most foreigners love) or they will rebel.

Mark Stewart: Don't be spooked by a trade deficit; it means great deals

Talk about "great deals", consumers do these great deals privately every time. Every time someone freely purchases an item, it means he obtained something valuable for a proper price OR LESS. That "consumer surplus", what a consumer would have paid but didn't have to, is the great deal that free trade gives & that Mr. Trump doesn't seem to recognize.

Now a lot of stored-up dollars abroad probably come back to purchase our stuff. So that's when our trade deficit moderates. But if it never goes to even, so what? That indicates we are rich enough to procure stuff from other nations. It incidentally helps those nations too. Free trade is what lifts societies, we should reduce almost every trade barrier we've erected.

Ron Crumpton: Oppose free trade; outsourcing costs American jobs

A: Strongly opposes. We've lost more than 2.4 million jobs due to outsourcing: Require all military contracts to use American companies:

Jim Hedges: Generally oppose free trade

A: sometimes, but generally oppose

Mark Perea: TPP and NAFTA lead to dissolution of national sovereignty

A: Oppose; `free trade` as it is currently being promoted is a path to political union and the dissolution of national sovereignty. The anti-democratic, dysfunctional, and dictatorial nature of the European Union is evidence of this. TPP and NAFTA are identical pacts to the original European Common Market that eventually became the EU.

Everett Stern: Strongly support & expand free trade

A: Strongly Support

Jon Lavoie: Support & expand free trade

A: Yes.

Jill Stein: TPP attacks our basic national sovereignty

Stein: The dispute resolution method allows corporations to not go to parent country--corporations can sue for lost future profits--it's a crazy concept.

OnTheIssues: To what court would corporations sue?

Stein: "Investor state dispute resolution courts." Three judges appointed by the World Bank, and heard in secret, who can overrule democratically established laws of the US or Mexico or any member of the treaty. A country can have its laws overturned by a corporation saying you are restricting my future profits by requiring that I pay workers the prevailing wage or clean up my toxic waste. It represents an attack on our basic national sovereignty. It means for example you can no longer pass a "local-preferred" policy because some agribusiness says it discriminates against their product .It would not stand the test of public scrutiny, which is why it is secret. What is not treasonous about this?

Jill Stein: Opposes Fast Track and executive action

Stein: Executive action for treaties in contrary to Constitution--they need congressional approval. We as the public should have a chance to view them, so it is dangerous for executive action to take place with international treaties. I very much oppose Fast Track.

Jill Stein: TPP is like NAFTA on steroids

Stein: Well, TPP is worse; it's like NAFTA on steroids--very little about trade and more about putting corporate profits first and creating a corporate state.