OTTAWA(Reuters) - Canada defended Democratic front-runner Barack Obama Monday over accusations from rival Hillary Clinton that he is secretly at ease with a hemispheric trade accord which he publicly blames for losing U.S. jobs.
Clinton's criticism, on the eve of make-or-break presidential nomination contests for her in Ohio and Texas, stemmed from a report by Canadian television station CTV that an Obama economic adviser told Canadian officials the candidate was not seriously considering disrupting the trade accord.
But the Canadian Embassy in Washington released a statement essentially backing up the Obama camp's version of the meeting between adviser Austan Goolsbee and officials at the Canadian consulate in Chicago.
"There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about NAFTA," the embassy statement said. "We deeply regret any inference that may have been drawn to that effect."
The consulate's written report of the meeting had left the suggestion that Obama's words on NAFTA were designed for a political audience and should not be taken too seriously, prompting an angry denial from the Obama campaign.
Clinton, a New York senator, has made an issue of what she says is Obama's support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, which her husband, former President Bill Clinton, signed in 1994 but which is now under heavy election-year criticism from her and Obama.
On Monday, Clinton challenged Obama's credibility on the trade issue ahead of the nomination contest in Ohio, where concern over the NAFTA trade agreement has become a key issue.
"It raises questions about Senator Obama coming to Ohio and giving speeches about NAFTA and having his chief economic adviser tell the Canadian government that it was just political rhetoric," she said at an early morning news conference in Ohio.
Both candidates fighting for the Democratic nomination to face the Republicans' choice in the November election have threatened to pull the United States out of NAFTA unless it is renegotiated.
They said the accord has hurt the manufacturing base in such states as economically hard-hit Ohio, which along with Texas votes on Tuesday.
CANADA PM DENIES INTERFERENCE
Some U.S. Democrats accused Canada's right-leaning Conservative government of trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.
That charge led Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take the unusual step of denying that Canada was trying to stir up trouble in the election process of its powerful southern neighbor.
"I certainly deny any allegation that this government has attempted to interfere in the American election," he told the country's parliament.
"The American people will make the decision as to their next president and I am confident that whoever that person is ... (they) will continue the strong alliance, friendship and partnership that we enjoy with the United States."
Canada sends 75 percent of its exports to the United States and would be badly hurt if Washington pulled out of NAFTA.
The U.S. Economic Policy Institute, a pro-labor think tank, has blamed NAFTA for more than 1 million U.S. job losses, most of them in manufacturing, since 1994. However, others put the tally much lower than that.
Obama, an Illinois senator, acknowledged that a meeting did take place between Goolsbee and the Canadian consulate officials but added, "He said exactly what I've been saying on the campaign trail."
In San Antonio, Texas, Obama said, "This notion that Senator Clinton is peddling that somehow there's contradictions or winks and nods has been disputed by all parties involved." (Additional reporting by Caren Bohan and Ellen Wulfhorst; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Stuart Grudgings)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment