Thursday, February 28, 2008

Fact Check: Obama Denies Report on Trade

AUSTIN, Texas - The Canadian embassy and Barack Obama's campaign are denying a report that the presidential candidate's criticism of the North American Free Trade Agreement is just campaign rhetoric that he doesn't really believe.

THE SPIN:

Canadian television network CTV cited anonymous sources who said a senior Obama adviser called Canadian ambassador Michael Wilson within the last month to warn him that Obama would criticize the agreement, but it was just the typical words uttered on the campaign trail.

THE FACTS:

Canada supports NAFTA, a trade agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico that is the largest trading partnership in the world. But it's widely opposed in Ohio, where jobs have been lost since the deal was implemented and where Obama and rival Hillary Rodham Clinton are trying to win a primary Tuesday.

Roy Norton, a minister at the Canadian embassy, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that Wilson and other embassy officials have expressed their support for NAFTA and their positions on other issues to officials from the three leading presidential campaigns - Obama, Clinton and likely Republican nominee John McCain.

But he said at no time has anyone from the Obama campaign told anyone at the embassy that his position on NAFTA is just for show. "It didn't happen," Horton said......

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