Off the wire
• Urgent: Blast in navy hospital in Indonesian capital kills 4  • Urgent: Sri Lanka gov't officially approves to restart China-funded multi-billion-dollar Port City project  • Iran condemns terrorist attack in Ankara  • Indian stocks close higher  • Roundup: Philippine bourse closes higher following rise of equities overseas  • 17 elephants flown to U.S. from Swaziland despite protests  • South-East Asia's top brass reaffirm military ties in Laos  • Algeria says kills leader of IS-linked terror group  • "Zootopia" tops North American box office for second time  • Rukajarvi, Anderson top slopestyle semis at Snowboarding Worlds  
You are here: 　 Home

Free trade merely campaign weapon in eyes of U.S. presidential candidates

Xinhua, March 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Amid a domestic controversy on free trade, U.S. presidential candidates of both parties have been publicly opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact to woo some voters, utilizing the issue to gain political interests for themselves.

"The rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign has effectively weaponized free trade," U.S. political news organization Politico said in an article.

During a campaign event in Youngstown, Ohio, on Saturday, Hillary Clinton said she supports tougher trade rules regarding the auto industry, criticizing auto provisions in the 12-nation TPP pact.

Clinton's hard stance aims to prevent Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, a sharp trade critic, from winning over more voters in the coming primaries, with the next one to be held on Tuesday in Ohio.

The announcement is a step toward strengthening her position on trade issues following Clinton's loss in Michigan last week, which may have been driven by Sanders' anti-trade message, the Washington Post noted in an article.

Clinton has been fiercely criticized by Sanders over her past support of trade deals, including the TPP pact, a deal she once advocated as secretary of state, and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) signed in the 1990s, when her husband was president.

Deals such as NAFTA have been blamed for massive job losses in states like Ohio, which is regarded as a key industrial state. That's why candidates of both parties have been anxiously taking on the free trade issue, using it as a powerful weapon against each other.

Sanders criticized free trade as a proxy for corporate greed, while Donald Trump, the billionaire Republican front-runner, said such deals serve politicians who put the interests of corporate contributors over those of ordinary Americans.

"Trade deals are absolutely killing our country," Trump said during Thursday night's GOP debate in Florida. The business tycoon has been fervently opposing the TPP pact to win support from working-class voters who are not fans of globalization, the Politico article said. Endi