Frank Pallone: “I voted against NAFTA. I voted against Fast Track. I think the only one of these I may have voted for was the Jordan one…”

“I voted against NAFTA. I voted against Fast Track. I think the only one of these I may have voted for was the Jordan one because they had negotiated it so that there were sufficient labor and environmental safeguards, but generally speaking, I have opposed all these major trade agreements exactly because I am worried that we give away the store and we do not provide any protections that arrive at what I call fair trade. Even the President, if you listen to him, will say that even though he is a free trader, he believes in fair trade in the sense that there is supposed to be some reciprocity, but as you point out, that reciprocity never exists. There is never anytime that I can remember when the President invoked any rule or said that we were going to, as you said, file a WTO complaint or complain about other countries' treatment with regard to trade. Anyway, this article said that with regard to NAFTA, essentially the United States lost big time.”