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Barack Obama and John Edwards are trailing Clinton enough that both have taken on new topics recently in an attempt to get a ‘bump’ in the polls. While Obama is still working his foreign policy blunder, Edwards has chosen another populist theme to attract voters at the YearlyKos and union gatherings. Both of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s rivals raised awareness of large lobbyist donations she has received while emphasizing their own refusal to accept those contributions.

Edwards is currently focusing on trade policy. The initial headlines focused on ‘harmful imports’ like the lead paint on toys made overseas. Edwards suggests these harmful imports must not be allowed to enter the country. If he is trying to win the support of organized labor by focusing on jobs, why did he not offer a solution for the American company having the toys made offshore? He says the import of harmful products must be stopped but no mention was made about offshore manufacturing or simply importing products rather than creating jobs making them here.

He has several campaign pieces outlining his new trade policy ideas. In the August 6th presentation of ‘Edwards unveils plan for smart and safe trade policies…’ he says these issues cannot simply be popular with Wall Street and must be judged by their effect on jobs, wages, prices and the families.

If you read the first bullet point of his proposal, what does he offer. The first claim is he will ‘be a tough negotiator’. Your first question should be how do we measure that vague promise? Who decides what defines ‘tough’? And also who decides what a bad trade deal is? It is also difficult to determine what ’strong’ means when applied to labor and environmental standards and what one can conclude about ‘fighting’ currency manipulation. The first bullet point crafts a simplistic message that offers no real solutions or clear definition of performance.

The second bullet point offers DOJ enforcement of his self-defined strong labor and environmental standards and eliminating tax breaks for companies moving offshore. Is he suggesting trade agreements are not currently enforced? And does he not need to get Congressional approval for changes to the tax code? Bullet point two is no more helpful than bullet point one.

It sounds like bullet point three is expecting bullet point one and two to fail. If the tough trade negotiator is successful in the business, labor, environmental aspects of agreements why would there be a need for assisting dislocated workers and other problems described?

Bullet points four and five are really one bullet point. How are those import ideas going to work really? It is essentially a labeling program that may already exist at least in part. It would be helpful to have Mr Edwards explain the details of implementing the selective elimination of imported items, piece by piece, as well as the cost and difficulty of an effective process to accomplish his goal. This country spends billions on protecting against terrorist activities and other threats. Just how much the Edwards’ plan will cost and how it gets paid for is a matter he conveniently omitted.

There is much missing from this unveiling. Whether by design or omission it gives support to the notion that this is merely a marketing scheme to foster higher numbers in the polls and nothing more.

Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com

A copy of the press release that ‘unveils’ the trade policy of John Edwards appears below.

Edwards Unveils Plan For “Smart And Safe” Trade Policies That Put Workers And Families First
Aug 6, 2007 11:30 AM

Will discuss how trade policies can benefit regular families, not just multinational corporations

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - Today, Senator John Edwards proposed his plan for “smart and safe” trade policies that will benefit working and middle class families instead of just big multinational corporations. Edwards believes our trade policies should give workers a level playing field. As president, he will insist on pro-worker provisions in new deals, hold trade partners to their commitments, invest more in dislocated workers and communities, and ensure that imports are safe. Edwards believes that the U.S. should not enter any new trade deals that do not meet these tests.

“Trade has become a bad word for working Americans for a simple reason - our trade policies have been bad for working Americans,” said Edwards. “We need new trade policies in America that put workers, wages and families first. It is not enough for a trade deal to be popular on Wall Street or show up in economic statistics. My main measure is just this one - after considering the impact on jobs, wages and prices, will most families be better off?”

Current trade policies include special privileges for corporations, and make it more difficult working Americans to compete in the global economy. As president, Edwards will make sure we have smart and safe trade policies that help families and strengthen our economy. Edwards will:

* Be a tough negotiator who will reject bad trade deals. Edwards will make sure trade deals help regular families, include strong labor and environmental standards and fight currency manipulation.
* Demand a level playing field for trade. Edwards will assign top prosecutors at the U.S. Department of Justice to the job of enforcing trade laws, including the stronger labor and environment standards he will negotiate. He will eliminate tax incentives for corporations to move offshore.
* Revamp trade assistance to help dislocated workers and communities. Edwards will create a new “Training Works” initiative, help communities recover from mass layoffs and strengthen the safety net for workers who lose their jobs.
* Ensure the safety of imported food and drugs and enforce mandatory country-of-origin labeling, letting families choose the origin of their food. Edwards will also enforce a “zero tolerance” rule and immediately freeze the specific import of any food, toys, medicines, or other goods that threatens the health of our children and families.
* Require Country-of-Origin labeling so that consumers have the option of choosing safe, American-raised meat and poultry and American-grown produce.

Edwards believes that in order to ensure that our trade policies and our economy work for regular Americans we need to end the influence of lobbyist money in Washington. He renewed his call for all federal officeholders and candidates from all political parties to join him in refusing to accept any form of campaign donation from federal lobbyists.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Public Affairs, Money Matters, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, Democrats, Clinton, Justice, obama, hillary, Edwards, Foreign Affairs, Minimum Wage, Business, Legislation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.