Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour: on Free Trade


Bill Clinton: Completed the Reagan-Bush achievements on NAFTA

The US will continue to seek cooperative trading partners throughout the world, but we will no longer accept uneven trading relationships with countries that do not grant American businesses the opportunity to compete in their markets.

The Clinton administration has attempted to "talk tough" on trade policy, but its actions have sent mixed signals to the world. Inevitably, the results have been lackluster, apart from completing the Reagan-Bush achievements on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round.

Where trading partners continue to build barriers to open trade, the US must use the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and domestic laws to insist on the rights of our exporters and domestic interests.

Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.171-172 Apr 25, 1996

Haley Barbour: Use the WTO and NAFTA to insist on domestic interests

The US will promote increased economic opportunities for Americans to do business in Central and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Asian nations moving toward more open, market-oriented economies. The US must pursue innovative mechanisms to encourage American trade and investment in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The US will continue to seek cooperative trading partners throughout the world, but we will no longer accept uneven trading relationships with countries that do not grant American businesses the opportunity to compete in their markets.

Where trading partners continue to build barriers to open trade, the US must use the World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and domestic laws to insist on the rights of our exporters and domestic interests.

Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.171-172 Apr 25, 1996

Haley Barbour: Focus on making the WTO work for American interests

The US must focus its attention on making the WTO work for American interests. The WTO is charged with enforcing the numerous new market-opening provisions won in the Uruguay Round. We must push the WTO to fulfill its mission. Where countries have not opened their markers in compliance with WTO requirements, the US should call them to account and, where necessary, utilize the WTO's new dispute resolution procedures. The WTO dispute settlement regime must become a platform for promoting market access for American business, and we should make aggressive use of it to eliminate foreign practices that violate the WTO's rules.
Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.182 Apr 25, 1996

Ronald Reagan: 1985: Articulated goal of Western Hemisphere free trade

Reagan's belief in the twin policies of deregulation and free market trade reinvigorated the American economy in the 1980s. Under Reagan's leadership, we initiated a series of measures to ensure increased opportunities to sell American-made goods and services overseas, believing that exports equal jobs for Americans.

It was Reagan who first articulated a goal of free trade in the Western Hemisphere. America's first free trade agreement with Israel, implemented in 1985, was a Reagan achievement. A US-Canada agreement followed. In 1986, Reagan launched the Uruguay Round, a series of talks aimed at the reduction of trade barriers among more than 60 nations. NAFTA, providing substantial trade benefits to US firms seeking to conduct business in Mexico and Canada--our best customers--was another initiative of the Reagan-Bush years.

Reagan's faith in free trade principles was vindicated abroad by the crumbling of state-controlled, centrally directed communist economies.

Source: Agenda For America, by Haley Barbour, p.177-178 Apr 25, 1996

  • The above quotations are from The Agenda for America
    A Republican Direction for the Future
    by Gov. Haley Barbour (R, MS).
  • Click here for definitions & background information on Free Trade.
  • Click here for other issues (main summary page).
  • Click here for more quotes by Haley Barbour on Free Trade.
Candidates and political leaders on Free Trade:

Retired Senate as of Jan. 2015:
GA:Chambliss(R)
IA:Harkin(D)
MI:Levin(D)
MT:Baucus(D)
NE:Johanns(R)
OK:Coburn(R)
SD:Johnson(D)
WV:Rockefeller(D)

Resigned from 113th House:
AL-1:Jo Bonner(R)
FL-19:Trey Radel(R)
LA-5:Rod Alexander(R)
MA-5:Ed Markey(D)
MO-9:Jo Ann Emerson(R)
NC-12:Melvin Watt(D)
SC-1:Tim Scott(R) 		Retired House to run for Senate or Governor:
AR-4:Tom Cotton(R)
GA-1:Jack Kingston(R)
GA-10:Paul Broun(R)
GA-11:Phil Gingrey(R)
HI-1:Colleen Hanabusa(D)
IA-1:Bruce Braley(D)
LA-6:Bill Cassidy(R)
ME-2:Mike Michaud(D)
MI-14:Gary Peters(D)
MT-0:Steve Daines(R)
OK-5:James Lankford(R)
PA-13:Allyson Schwartz(D)
TX-36:Steve Stockman(R)
WV-2:Shelley Capito(R) 		Retired House as of Jan. 2015:
AL-6:Spencer Bachus(R)
AR-2:Tim Griffin(R)
CA-11:George Miller(D)
CA-25:Howard McKeon(R)
CA-33:Henry Waxman(D)
CA-45:John Campbell(R)
IA-3:Tom Latham(R)
MN-6:Michele Bachmann(R)
NC-6:Howard Coble(R)
NC-7:Mike McIntyre(D)
NJ-3:Jon Runyan(R)
NY-4:Carolyn McCarthy(D)
NY-21:Bill Owens(D)
PA-6:Jim Gerlach(R)
UT-4:Jim Matheson(D)
VA-8:Jim Moran(D)
VA-10:Frank Wolf(R)
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Page last updated: Dec 12, 2018