Obama’s 2008 promise to reopen NAFTA gets trotted out again in Washington
WASHINGTON – A controversial six-year-old campaign promise by Barack Obama to renegotiate NAFTA has made a re-appearance.
The president’s trade secretary says that’s exactly what’s happening right now with the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Michael Froman says the ongoing 12-country talks are allowing the president to make good on his 2008 promise to reopen the old North American Free Trade Agreement to improve labour and environmental standards.
That issue bedevilled Obama’s first presidential campaign and may have delayed his victory in the Democratic primary.
His campaign was sideswiped by chatter from Canada that the promise was an empty one and was not to be taken seriously.
The ensuing controversy led to a leak investigation in Canada and rocked the office of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
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