Statement of the issue
Obama opposes free trade agreements that don’t live up to labor and environmental standards and advocates “hard bargaining” in trade negotiations. “Globalization is here, and I don’t think Americans are afraid to compete. And we have the goods and the services and the skills and the innovation to compete anywhere in the world.”
Actions: Obama voted AGAINST implementing CAFTA (2005) and FOR a free trade agreement with Oman (2006).
Source: www.issue2008.com

Analysis – causes, assumptions
Globalization is not someone's political agenda. It is a technological revolution that is fundamentally changing the world's economy, producing winners and losers along the way. The question is not whether we can stop it, but how we respond to it. It's not whether we should protect our workers from competition, but what we can do to fully enable them to compete against workers all over the world.

Evaluation -- values, criteria
Obama and Biden believe that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American economy and create more American jobs.

Proposals – preferred outcomes, assumptions, values
- Obama and Biden will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. They will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks. Obama and Biden will also pressure the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.

- To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama and Biden will update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.

- Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that companies should not get billions of dollars in tax deductions for moving their operations overseas. Obama and Biden will also fight to ensure that public contracts are awarded to companies that are committed to American workers.
Source: www.barackobama.com

Statement of the issue
McCain endorses free trade and supports NAFTA, the GATT agreement, and US membership in the WTO and favors trade treaties over protectionism. “I would negotiate a free trade agreement with almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us. Only risks to the security of our vital interests or egregious offenses to our most cherished political values should disqualify a nation from entering into a free trade agreement with us.” Actions: McCain voted FOR renewing Fast Track presidential trade authority (1997), FOR expanding trade to the third world (1997), FOR permanent normal trade relations with China (2000), FOR extending free trade to Vietnam (2001), Andean nations (2002), Chile (2003), Singapore (2003), and Oman (2006), and FOR implementing CAFTA. The CATO Institute Center for Trade Policy Studies has given McCain a rating of 100%.
Source: www.issue2008.com

Analysis – causes, assumptions
Ninety-five percent of the world's customers lie outside our borders and we need to be at the table when the rules for access to those markets are written.Lowering trade barriers to American goods and services creates more and better jobs, keeps inflation under control, keeps interest rates low, and makes more goods affordable to more Americans.

Evaluation -- values, criteria
John McCain believes that globalization is an opportunity for American workers today and in the future, while understanding that globalization will not automatically benefit every American.

Proposals – preferred outcomes, assumptions, values
U.S. should engage in multilateral, regional and bilateral efforts to reduce barriers to trade, level the global playing field and build effective enforcement of global trading rules.

We must prepare the next generation of workers by making American education worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. We must be a nation committed to competitiveness and opportunity.
Source: www.johnmccain.com