McCain aide: NAFTA is good

By David Skolnick

John McCain will have a public meeting at noon today.

YOUNGSTOWN — Though some in the Mahoning Valley blame the North American Free Trade Agreement for hurting the local economy, a top economic adviser to John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, says it’s been an overall benefit to the nation.

“NAFTA has created millions of jobs,” Carly Fiorina, a McCain economic adviser and chairwoman of the Republican National Committee’s Victory ’08, told The Vindicator on Monday.

Fiorina, a former chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, recognizes that “in some cases, people have suffered” economically because of NAFTA, including portions of Ohio.

“When communities and families lose jobs, it’s a devastating thing,” she said.

Devastating only begins to describe what NAFTA has done to the Valley, said U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, whose district includes Youngstown. Ryan said he wonders if McCain and his advisers understand what NAFTA and other trade agreements have done to the Valley.

Despite economic problems in some areas, NAFTA, a 1994 agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico, is a huge success, Fiorina said.

The U.S. Department of Commerce says overall trade among the three countries grew from $297 billion in 1993 to $883 billion in 2006.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, voted in favor of NAFTA and continues to support it.

McCain is to visit Youngstown today as part of his “Time for Action Tour.”

McCain is to lead a public town-hall forum at noon at Youngstown State University’s Kilcawley Center.

He also has stops before the forum at Fabart Inc. on Martin Luther King Boulevard, at 11:30 a.m., and after at Fireline Inc., of Andrews Avenue, at about 2:30 p.m.

Trade, particularly NAFTA, is a hot-button issue in the Valley and other portions of northeast Ohio and was a frequent topic of discussion between the two Democratic presidential candidates leading to last month’s Ohio primary.

U.S. Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., their party’s two remaining presidential candidates, weren’t in Congress when NAFTA was passed.

Obama said he’s always opposed it. NAFTA was approved while Clinton’s husband was president and a strong supporter of the agreement. But she insists she’s never supported the deal.

Obama and Clinton have threatened to cancel the trade agreement if it isn’t reopened to address environmental and worker protection issues.

Fiorina strongly disagrees with that position.

“The United States can’t get into the position of renegotiating treaties by itself,” she said. “It’s not our place to change treaties” unilaterally when an agreement was reached with Canada and Mexico.

There are those in Ohio who blame NAFTA, which eliminated tariffs on a majority of products traded among the three nations, for adding to the state’s economic struggles.

Ohio has lost about 257,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, although it isn’t known how many were caused by NAFTA.

McCain’s strength is considered to be foreign policy, but Fiorina says he has a great understanding of the national economy.

McCain is focused on job creation and growth, the “role government can play to kill or to grow innovation,” and isn’t afraid to take on the government or corporate America when they need to be held accountable, she said.

Officials with the Ohio Democratic Party disagree with Fiorina’s assessment of McCain’s knowledge of the economy.

The party purchased time on talk, adult contemporary, country music and Christian music radio stations in Youngstown and southeast Ohio for a 60-second commercial titled “More of the Same.” The commercial, airing between today and Friday, blasts McCain for his positions on jobs, trade, taxes and the housing foreclosure crisis.

Also, Progressive Media USA, a national independent Democratic organization, has purchased time on Youngstown television stations for a commercial comparing McCain to President Bush on economy issues.

Political insiders say McCain might consider Fiorina, who’s never run for public office before, as a possible vice presidential running mate.

“John McCain will make his choice for vice president when he’s ready,” she said.

skolnick@vindy.com