In the lead-up to today's Iowa Presidential Caucuses, trade has been made an issue by Iowans who have been negatively impacted by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other neo-liberal trade agreements. Late last year, the Iowa Fair Trade Campaign sent a letter representing dozens of labor, farm, environmental, and religious groups to candidates in the 2008 presidential election, outlining what these diverse groups consider to be acceptable trade policies. The groups agreed that an acceptable trade and globalization policy would consist of the following:

• Replacing the Fast Track trade negotiating process
Stating what must and must not be included in all future agreements
• Reviewing and, as necessary, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and other existing trade agreements
• Changing course on the current Doha Round World Trade Organization (WTO) expansion negotiations
• Combating the trade deficit/offshoring crisis, including by addressing currency manipulation, enforcing U.S. trade laws and taking other measures

After articulating these basic positions, the group sent out a questionnaire to all the presidential candidates in Iowa asking for their positions on trade. While only Democrats--and for that matter only Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Bill Richardson--responded, their responses are important.

In Michigan, we have felt the effects of neoliberalism firsthand. The most prominent example is job loss from NAFTA. As a whole, Michigan lost 63,148 jobs from NAFTA. This creates a context in which candidates who make trade an issue could gain votes in Michigan. Thus far, the Republican candidate Ron Paul has made this an issue in Michigan and is specifically targeting Democratic Party voters.

Here are the candidates' statements on trade:

Fast Track

Replacing the Fast Track Trade Negotiating Process: The IFTC letter urged all presidential candidates seeking support in the Iowa caucuses to: Commit to strengthening Congress' role in trade policy, by replacing the Fast Track negotiating process with a new system that includes readiness criteria to determine appropriate negotiating partners; binding obligations regarding what must and must not be in future trade agreements; the right of prior informed consent for states before they are bound to non-trade, investment, service sector and procurement rules in trade agreements; and the right for Congress to vote before agreements are signed.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	"I will not enter into new trade agreements or seek trade promotion authority, until my administration has done two things: reviewed all of our existing agreements to determine whether they are benefiting our economy and our workers; and crafted a comprehensive, pro-America trade policy that will strengthen our country in the 21st Century." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"When the strategic pause is suspended, and when I am satisfied that the time has come to begin negotiations on new and improved trade agreements, they will be conducted with full transparency. I will ensure that all parties are at the table including workers and family farmers and I will open negotiations to observers. There is no reason for trade agreements to see the light of day only after they are completed." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"[W]e need a new way to negotiate trade agreements that ensures they do not overstep into imposing one-size-fits all constraints which limit the domestic health care, education, environmental, safety and other policies that are essential to ensuring our nation's future. This new trade negotiating system must provide more opportunities for diverse public input in contrast to our current system which relatively advantages business interests while largely excluding non-commercial interests. I will tie both unilateral trade preferences and bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, as well as, future presidential Trade Negotiating Authority, to measurable progress on labor rights in the involved countries." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I will replace Fast Track with a process that includes criteria determining appropriate negotiating partners that includes an analysis of labor and environmental standards as well as the state of civil society in those countries. Finally, I will ensure that Congress plays a strong and informed role in our international economic policy and in any future agreements we pursue and in our efforts to amend existing agreements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign

Labor Standards

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Trade agreements must incorporate requirements to adopt into domestic law and enforce the five basic internationally-recognized core labor rights as stated in the eight fundamental International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions dealing with freedom of association; the right to organize and bargain collectively; the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; the effective abolition of child labor; the elimination of the worst forms of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation. Failing to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial provisions of the trade agreements.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"All trade agreements must contain labor and environmental standards... Our trade policy should not reward exploitation of people." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"Strong, enforceable labor and environmental provisions must be part of the core text of every trade agreements. If they are not, our workers will have to compete on an unfair playing field. That is not acceptable." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I will insist on fair trade, vigorously enforce existing trade agreements, and ensure that new trade agreements include strong worker and environmental protections." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"Agreements must have at their core strong protections for the global environment and the five basic internationally-recognized core labor rights as stated in the eight fundamental (ILO) conventions...Such provisions must be enforced with the same mechanisms provided for enforcement of other commercial provisions." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"We'll add binding obligations to protect the right to collective bargaining and other core labor standards recognized by the International Labor Organization. And I will add enforceable standards to NAFTA, the World Trade Organization (WTO), CAFTA and other Free Trade Agreements (FTA's) currently in effect." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"Trade agreements must require developing nations to improve their labor, human rights and environmental practices. I will insist that trade agreements demand adherence to core ILO standards... Such trade agreements must be vigorously enforced by the WTO... Countries that do not enforce national law and internationally binding obligations will be subject to dispute settlement under the WTO." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)

Environmental Standards

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Trade agreements must allow nations to follow environmental, health and safety standards adopted in reliance on the precautionary principle, recognizing the legitimate rights of governments to protect public health, safety and the environment. Trade agreements must incorporate requirements to adopt into domestic law and enforce the major Multilateral Environmental Agreements, which comprise the global consensus on basic environmental protection. Failing to meet such standards must be subject to the same dispute resolution and enforcement mechanisms and penalties that apply to the commercial provisions of the trade agreements.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"All trade agreements must contain labor and environmental standards. Our trade policy should not reward... low environmental standards."(Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"Strong enforceable labor and environmental provisions must be part of the core text of every trade agreement" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"[I will] require trading partners to meet environmental standards." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"I will insist that new trade agreements include strong rules on environmental protection. As the world's biggest customer, our trade deals can be vital tools to ensure that progress is made in addressing the threat of global climate change [and can] ensure that poor environmental practices do not create unfair competitive advantages, and that those who are willing to destroy the planet do not profit from their irresponsibility. And trade agreements should not be allowed to override the multilateral environmental agreements that represent the global consensus of sovereign nations about vital environmental measures." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"We should add binding environmental standards so that companies from one country cannot gain an economic advantage by destroying the environment." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"Trade agreements should truly prioritize social and environmental objectives...Trade agreements, when properly conceived and implemented, must require developing nations to improve their labor, human rights and environmental practices... I believe the U.S. should offer a grand bargain to the members of the WTO: All of the members of the WTO should agree to adhere to and enforce the core ILO standards and the Kyoto treaty." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)

Foreign Investor Protection

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Foreign investors must not be given the right to sue governments directly under trade agreements. The investor privileges included in most trade agreements expose our domestic environmental, public health, zoning and other public interest laws to potential challenge by foreign corporations in secret tribunals. Trade agreements must not allow private investors and corporations to compel governments to pay compensation for the costs of complying with laws, regulations, or other policies to protect the public welfare.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	"I will use the power of the Presidency to ensure Congress passes a law to remove the enforcement mechanisms that allow corporations to directly challenge state, local or federal public interest laws for perceived loss of profit and will ban such provisions from any future agreements. I see this as a critical part of insisting on trade agreements that put the interests of all Americans first" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"Rather than foreign investor protections that promote offshoring and job loss, agreements must have at their core strong protections for the global environment and the five basic internationally-recognized core labor rights as stated in the eight fundamental International Labor Organizations (ILO) conventions." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"With regards to provisions in several FTA's that give foreign investors the right to sue governments directly in foreign tribunals, I will ensure that this right is strictly limited and will fully exempt any law or regulation written to protect public safety or promote the public interest. Our judicial system is strong and gives everyone conducting business in the United States recourse in our courts. The tribunal system was created to ensure that our investors would have access to similar protection abroad. I understand the concerns surrounding this issue, and am committed to working to address them." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign

Safety Standards

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Trade agreements must not limit our ability to ensure that both imported and domestic products meet our safety standards, nor should they limit the rate of border inspection of imported goods.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"Instead of allowing unsafe products - such as toys with lead paint - to enter the United States, I would suspend imports as we are allowed to do under WTO rules." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I will protect American families from unsafe food, drugs and toys made overseas. I have called for a single safety agency to oversee all federal food safety activities. We must hold foreign producers of drugs, toys and food to American safety requirements. I have also called for Country of Origin labeling and an increase in the number of inspectors at ports of entry and in foreign countries to verify that our safety rules are observed." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I will ensure that goods imported into America are not harmful to the health and welfare of our citizens, especially children. And, if they are found to be harmful, I will not hesitate to immediately shut those imports down...[I] will require that imported goods contain information about where they are made as well as where they are assembled. [I] will create a 'Surgeon General's' warning for products that come from countries that have problematic safety records." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"We need as a nation to specifically, and urgently for immediate health and safety reasons, eliminate both the unreasonable limitations on border inspections of imports and the ceilings on safety standards which are now present in many of our trade agreements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I have talked extensively about stepping up enforcements of our trade and product safety laws and I am committed to doing so. We will not allow the shipment of toys contaminated with lead into our country, nor will we place our people at risk of eating food that does not meet our safety standards. I will make sure that any goods coming into America meet American safety standards, and that the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the other agencies that protect consumers have the tools necessary to make sure that what we're buying is safe." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"The 151 members of the WTO should [also] agree to a 'no-standards lowering clause.'" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)

Service-Sector Provisions

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Trade agreements should not require the privatization or deregulation of essential services, including education, health care, construction, transportation, water supply and energy.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	"Unfortunately, there has been a trend in recent trade agreements to require deregulation or privatization of essential services. This is no more than an attempt to get around current law. I will immediately work to change these provisions." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign

Procurement Provisions

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Procurement provisions in trade agreements must not undermine the ability of federal and state governments to use tax dollars to create and maintain good jobs, to promote economic opportunity and development, and to achieve other important social goals, including safeguarding prevailing wage, renewable energy, and recycled content.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	"I will continue to work to increase the Buy American percentages in government purchasing, including changing provisions in trade deals that obstruct progressive procurement policies. The only exception I would consider is in the instance that other governments agree to not have restrictive agreements that disadvantage US companies in their own markets." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"I will also ensure that our government procurement policies strengthen, rather than compete against, the interests of our domestic businesses and that they help create jobs for American workers, and I am prepared to make changes to our current trade agreements to support such policies. It is a worrisome symptom indeed of the overreach of our current trade agreements that our domestic prevailing wage, recycled content, renewable energy and other procurement requirements could be challenged under trade agreements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	"We should also use the US governments' huge purchasing power to promote labor and other human rights in the same way that procurement policies today support energy efficiency. The U.S. government should buy goods and services from companies that adhere to internationally accepted standards for social and environmental progress." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)

NAFTA

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Commit to review and assess NAFTA and other bilateral trade agreements, particularly their impact on our jobs, wages, working conditions, environment, consumer safety and democratic protections. Such a review must include recommendations on how to address problems in existing agreements, up to and including renegotiation.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"I would then review NAFTA and the terms of other trade agreements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"As President, I will review NAFTA and work with our trade partners to correct its shortcomings." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"""I will take a strategic pause in negotiating new trade agreements while we assess the strengths and weaknesses of the existing ones."" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"When I am President, the first step I would undertake is a careful assessment of our existing agreements, so that we can ensure we do not repeat past mistakes and identify if and how our existing agreements require modification." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"One of the first things I'll do as President will be to call the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico and work with them to fix NAFTA. And I will add enforceable measures to NAFTA, the [WTO], CAFTA and other [FTA's] currently in effect..And We should amend NAFTA to make clear that fair laws and regulations written to protect citizens in any of the three countries cannot be overridden simply at the request of foreign investors." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign

The WTO Doha Round

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Commit to oppose the current direction of the WTO Doha Round and to call for a new direction in global trade talks to prioritize protections for workers, the poor, health and the environment, and to ensure that global trade rules do not undermine the ability of governments to regulate in the public interest.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"Our more than decade-long experience with the WTO and its agreements evidences too many negative outcomes domestically and other nations around the world for us to agree to expand the WTO's authority as currently proposed in the Doha Round. As a nation, we need to let our WTO trading partners with which we have material trade deficits know that that the current WTO constructs are simply not working. We need to focus on fixing these rules and the protocols under which challenges are made and decisions are rendered." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign

The Trade Deficit

Iowa Fair Trade Campaign Position: Commit to strengthen and effectively enforce U.S. trade laws to protect U.S. jobs and our manufacturing base. Commit to implementing emergency policies to bring our trade deficit into balance, including by addressing currency manipulation, eliminating tax breaks for offshoring production, and exploring other options, such as an import surcharge.

Sen. Joe Biden's Position	Sen. Hillary Clinton's Position	Sen. Chris Dodd's Position
"I would stop allowing the Chinese to manipulate the value of its currency and exchange rates. I would convene a summit, as we did in the 1980's, with Europe, China and Japan to address currency valuation." "A Biden White House would approach trade policy by immediately enforcing existing trade agreements--something that this Administration is not doing" (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"As President, I will make vigorous enforcement of our agreements a priority. I will appoint a trade enforcement officer, and double the enforcement staff at the office of the United States Trade Representative...As President, I will...ensure foreign countries do not manipulate currencies to disadvantage American goods." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"For too long, countries like China have been illegally manipulating the value of their currency against World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules to gain unfair trade advantages...Chris Dodd will put an end to this by immediately designating China and others who illegally engage in this practice as currency manipulators and holding them accountable before the WTO, the IMF, and the International Trade Commission." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)
Former Sen. John Edwards' Position	Sen. Barack Obama's Position	Gov. Bill Richardson's Position
"I will eliminate the tax incentives that encourage American companies to invest overseas rather than here at home. We must fix our own tax code so that corporations aren't rewarded for closing plants and shipping jobs to countries like China. In an Edwards administration, the top prosecutors at the Department of Justice will be responsible for enforcing out trade agreements. And our trade deals must include prohibitions against illegal subsidies and currency manipulation and other trade cheating of the sort that is in fact encouraged under most of our current arrangements." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	"I will protect our producers from dumping, predatory pricing and currency manipulation. And I will promote policies to reinvigorate our manufacturing sector by ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. I will fight the manipulation of currency others are engaged in, including China, because it will make products artificially cheaper than ours. And we will demand equal access to markets abroad for our producers so that centralized discrimination against our auto producers in Korea through taxes and regulation is not repeated in other markets with American goods and services." (Statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign)	Not included in statement to IA Fair Trade Campaign