Mike Huckabee (Trade)

Huckabee's Trade (section page)

Free and Fair Trade

"As president, I will fight for America’s future and America’s farmers. I will:

• Reject Obama’s radical, EPA mandates that strangle farmers with bureaucracy and Washington nonsense.
• Fight for free and fair trade. Americans can compete with anyone in the world, but agriculture trade is often unfair and not free.
• Support American corn producers and the renewable fuel standard. Washington shouldn’t pick favorites or change the rules in the middle of the game.
• Abolish the Death Tax and protect family farms." [1]

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

"I support free, fair trade, but I’m sick of America’s workers getting punched in the gut."

"We don’t create good jobs for Americans by entering into unbalanced trade deals that forgo congressional scrutiny and ignore the law only to import low-wage labor, undercut American workers, and drive wages lower than the Dead Sea."

"I cannot support giving this administration trade promotion authority (TPA) for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)" given the following reasons:

• Obama administration cannot be trusted to negotiate on behalf of the American people.
• President Obama should sort out a clear, honest framework of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) with Congress before horse-trading with foreign bureaucrats.
• Political pressure from Obama administration will force Congress to accept even a lousy TPP agreement.
• Poorly crafted TPP will worsen problems on immigration and currency manipulation, such as number of foreign workers and artificially cheap imports.

"We need to expand trade and work with partners across the globe to grow our economy. However, this Administration (TPA) cannot be trusted to negotiate a deal that makes sense for American workers. [2]

More Issues on Free Trade

• Trans Pacific Partnership isn't fair trade or free trade
  • Huckabee complained that American wages have been stagnant since Chinese trade agreements went into effect over the past few decades: "People are working hard, and they have less to show for it," he said. "We need to quit apologizing for being America, and we need to start making it so that Americans can prosper and not just so that the Chinese can buy Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags.

• Free AND fair trade: globalize, but help those whom it harms
  • I support free trade, but it has to be fair trade. We are losing jobs because of an unlevel, unfair trading arena that must be fixed.

• Diplomacy hasn't worked; impose sanctions on China
  • The federal government won't take the necessary steps when China refuses to play by the rules of fair trade. For the past six years, we've relied on diplomacy, when we should have imposed sanctions and brought legal actions against them. It's only very recently that our government has at last begun minimal action. We need less talk and more of that action.

• Supports NAFTA & CAFTA, if partners “hafta” abide by rules
  • Q: If you were president, you wouldn’t go forward with another version of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, or any of these other free-trade agreements that are in the works right now?

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.