Democrats Need to Embrace NAFTA

On the Democratic campaign trail, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has become a punching bag representing all of the ills of free trade, responsible for destroying middle class jobs.

The populist rhetoric reached a fever pitch in Ohio this week, even though both Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) have spoken favorably of NAFTA at times and recently supported the Peru Free Trade Agreement.

Democrats and their union supporters have blamed NAFTA for job losses in sectors like manufacturing. Clinton has made strong statements such as, "We need a trade timeout," or "I'm fighting to change NAFTA." And Obama has echoed John Kerry's 2004 convention speech by saying:

I talked to workers who have seen their plants shipped overseas due to consequences of poor deals like NAFTA that have literally seen equipment unbolted from the floors of factories and shipped to China.

But is NAFTA really to blame? ...