Ron Kirk, Obama's U.S. Trade Representive? (supported "NAFTA freeway")

Barack Obama is apparently considering naming former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative. Kirk is a strong NAFTA booster while Obama has only pretended not to be one. During the campaign, Obama played a cute game: pretending to want to "renegotiate" NAFTA, only to later admit that he'd been misleading. With Kirk, at least what they want to do is a bit more out in the open.

Around March 12, 2001, Dino Chiecci of the Associated Press included this in "Meeting of Minds/Governors agree on Dallas trade center" (PDF link):

Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk said “75 percent of goods that move between Mexico and the United States by truck move come through our community on Interstate 35. This is our effort to make that corridor designated the 'NAFTA Freeway' the true river of trade between our communities."

Yes, you read that right: Obama's choice supported a "NAFTA Freeway", nowadays called the TransTexas Corridor. While the latter is a real plan in the late planning stages in Texas, endless hacks have claimed that its Mexico to Canada version - the NAFTA Superhighway is just tin foil hat talk. Accordingly, expect fun word games ahead, as Obama's supporters try to explain that that isn't the same as a "NAFTA Superhighway", something that those supporters have said isn't a plan despite Obama describing something that sounds an awful like it and despite Obama supporting a secretive Bush scheme (the SPP.gov) to "harmonize" regulations between the three countries.

Note also that Obama's choice to be Labor Secretary, Hilda Solis, doesn't really oppose "free trade"; she simply supports "fair trade", i.e., "free trade" with fluffed pillows to make things a little more comfortable for those negatively affected.

Fri, 12/19/2008 - 01:04 · · Importance: 14