BREAKING: Clinton Announces Support for NAFTA Expansion

Under intense pressure from opponents in the 2008 presidential race and a building national fair trade movement, Sen. Hillary Clinton tonight finally disclosed her position on a Bush administration-backed bill to expand the NAFTA trade model that passed the U.S. House today and is now moving to the U.S. Senate. Reuters [1] is reporting that Clinton says she will vote for the Peru Free Trade Agreement - the first agreement in a package of corporate-crafted agreements [2] to vastly expand the NAFTA trade model.

Clinton is citing the Peru deal's labor standards as justification for her support, despite the fact that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce [3] has told reporters it has received "assurances" that those labor standards are "unenforceable," and despite a Columbia University report [4] showing how the Peru deal could actually weaken labor law enforcement.

The announcement, which flies in the face of polls [5] showing the public strongly opposed to NAFTA-style trade policies, comes on the same day the New York Times [6] reports that Clinton is being endorsed by NAFTA architect Robert Rubin, the CEO of Citigroup - a company that stands to reap financial rewards from the NAFTA model [7]. Rubin's announcement came with a promise to raise Clinton more money from Wall Street.

This announcement could change the dynamics of the presidential race, considering recent headline-grabbing plant closings in both Iowa [8] and New Hampshire [9], and considering the NAFTA expansion was opposed by two out of Iowa's three Democratic House Members, and both of New Hampshire's [10].

As my nationally syndicated newspaper column out tomorrow details, trade and globalization is taking center stage in the 2008 presidential campaign. Clinton's announcement will now specifically make job-killing, wage-destroying NAFTA-style trade policy a flashpoint in the race for the White House.