McCain Sees Obama Shifting on NAFTA

John McCain criticized Barack Obama on Friday for what the Republican sees as a shift in his position on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“For months, Barack Obama said that he would ‘make sure that we renegotiate’ NAFTA, demanded unilateral changes and threatened to unilaterally withdraw if he did not get his way,” McCain said in a statement. Barack Obama knew better. America has not had a protectionist president since Herbert Hoover, but Barack Obama held his position anyway to further his cynical political purposes in the primary campaign.”

McCain’s campaign released the statement while McCain was in Canada, which is a party to NAFTA in addition to the United States and Mexico.

Obama, who had said during the Democratic primaries that NAFTA renegotiations should be considered, said in a Fortune magazine interview published this week that he didn’t believe in unilaterally re-opening NAFTA.

“I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally,” Obama said. “I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.”