Mike Huckabee on Free Trade Republican AR Governor

Supports NAFTA & CAFTA, if partners “hafta” abide by rules

A: No, I think the free-trade agreements are wonderful to have, and I supported NAFTA and CAFTA. But I always say, then you “hafta” make sure that these free trade agreements are being abided by both parties, and that’s not what’s happened.

Fair trade includes lead-free products & playing by rules

A: The main thing we have to do is to make sure that our free trade agreements involve fair trade. And that’s something that we’ve got to do a better job of enforcing, is to make sure that those products which are coming into the US are free of lead, that they’re safe, that they’re manufactured in the same kind of standards that we expect our American companies to use when they built things. And that hasn’t happened. And one of the reasons we’re losing a lot of jobs is that we’ve been in such a rush to make sure that we exemplify the boundaries of free trade, that we forgot that we’re all supposed to play by the same rules. If somebody cheats, you’re not playing the game fairly. When the Chinese send toys that have lead, they have dog food that causes our pets to die, when we have food that comes to us contaminated, when things that are created by people who have worked in sweatshops--how does an American worker expect to compete?

A free country must feed, fuel, & fight for itself

A: It’s most certainly a national security threat because a country can only be free if it can do three things.

1. It has to be able to feed itself. It has to be able to put food on the table for its own citizens.
2. It’s got to be able to fuel itself. If it looks to somebody else for its energy needs, it’s only as free as those are willing for it to be.
3. And it also has to be able to fight for itself. It’s got to be able to manufacture its own weapons of defense--tanks, airplanes, bullets and bombs.

We need fair trade because we’re losing jobs

And that’s why we’re losing jobs here, and that’s what has to change. This party is going to have to start addressing it, or we’re going to get our britches beat next year.

This country can never yield its sovereignty for any reason

A: I believe with all my heart is that this country can never, ever, ever yield its sovereignty to any other country for any reason, under any circumstance, ever That’s why I would agree that we not only need closed and secure borders, but more importantly, we need a re-understanding that we are a sovereign nation, and we do not yield ourselves over.

Trade sanctions on Saudi Arabia for persecuting Christians

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: Yes.

China trade contingent on human rights & product safety

• HUCKABEE: Yes.
• TANCREDO: Yes.
• COX: Yes.
• BROWNBACK: Yes.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: Absolutely. Yes. Good question.
• KEYES: Yes.

No NAFTA Superhighway from Canada to Mexico

• HUCKABEE: No.
• TANCREDO: No.
• COX: No.
• BROWNBACK: No.
• PAUL: No.
• HUNTER: No.
• KEYES: No.

Marketplace pushes innovation to top & prices to bottom

Three dominant factors in the American economy make it increasingly difficult for jobs to remain here: excess LITIGATION, excess TAXATION, and excess REGULATION combine to ultimately result in the MIGRATION of American jobs to marketplaces beyond our borders.

Farm subsidies ok because Europe & Asia do same

Keeping American farmers in business is also good for the consumer. The theory behind subsidies is that production is maintained at a higher level, driving food costs lower. This empowers consumers and generates stability in the farming economy so that America remains a producing rather than consuming nation.

Subsidies also help insulate farmers from natural disasters and spikes in the cost of fuel, feed, and fertilizer.

Enforce trade law against subsidized Canadian lumber imports.

• Whereas, the US Department of Commerce has determined that the Canadian provinces subsidize lumber production by selling timber to Canadian lumber companies at non-competitive prices for a fraction of the timber’s market value, and imposed an import duty of 19.3%;
• Whereas, artificially low provincial timber prices, minimum harvesting restrictions and other practices encourage over-harvesting and over-production in Canada to the detriment of US industry, forest land owners, workers and the environment;
• Whereas, these unfair subsidy practices have helped Canadian imports gain an increasing share of the US softwood lumber market, rising 15% from the first to second quarter of 2001;
• Whereas, highly subsidized Canadian lumber imports unfairly compete with US lumber companies and affect thousands of US jobs, and drive down the value of US forest land; Whereas an agreement between the United States and Canada on lumber trade expired in March 2001; now, therefore, be it
• Resolved, That the Southern Governor’s Association urges the Administration to continue to enforce fully the current United States trading laws and to encourage open and competitive sales of timber in Canada.