NAFTA...a flashback...

As I was reading Cleveland Openers this caught my attention:

Sherrod Brown put up a new commercial on Saturday that blames the loss of thousands of Ohio jobs on trade agreements that Mike DeWine supported. Specifically, he cites the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Central American Free Trade Agreement as well as unspecified trade policy on China.

"I voted against all of these deals," Brown says, "and my opponent voted for them."


As Opener's points out, DeWine did not vote for the original NAFTA back in 1993.

So let's flash back to 1993, a Washington Post article:

Clinton stepped up the effort to more directly lay out what the administration describes as "the real costs" of passing up the trade pact. "If we walk away from this," Clinton said, Mexico will likely "make the same deal with Europe or Japan" to eliminate all tariffs between their nations.

"If Congress votes this down on the 17th of November, I would, if I were the prime minister of Japan, have the finance minister of my country in to see the president of Mexico on the 18th of November," Clinton said.

I realize now NAFTA has become something that many Democrats don't support and some did not support even at the time but when the Sherrod Brown campaign is making NAFTA an issue, it's hard for some of us who actually remember 1993 to view it the way it is being presented.

Here is the roll call of Senators who voted for and against NAFTA

Here is the roll call from the House of Representatives for and against NAFTA

One hundred and two Democrats in the House and twenty-five Democrats in the Senate voted to support President Clinton on NAFTA. John Kerry was one of those who voted for NAFTA and while in 2003 he said he would not have voted for NAFTA if it was in front of him then. I also clearly remember Ross Perot in 1992 claiming that passage would cause a "giant sucking sound" of jobs leaving the United States for Mexico.

I understand that Sherrod Brown is trying to point out that DeWine still supports the concept of NAFTA today, but I do think it's important to point out that NAFTA was supported by some in the Democratic Party beyond just President Clinton.

This post is included in the Carnival of Ohio Politics brought to you by the most wonderful Paul Miller of Northwest Ohio.net