Barack Obama
In response to CWA's questionnaire, Barack Obama said the following about jobs and trade:
I originally moved to Chicago to work with churches and community organizations who were dealing with the devastation caused by the closure of steel plants throughout the region. Tens of thousands of people had been laid off. So I have seen up close and spent my adult life trying to help workers and their families manage the downside of globalization. While I firmly believe American workers are the best in the world and that if given a fair race we can compete with anyone, no American worker should have to compete with child or forced labor abroad. That is why I have fought to put strong provisions against such practices in the core of trade agreements.
I opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) because it did not satisfy the principle of respect and protection for the right of workers. In addition to putting protections for workers in the core of our trade agreements we must enforce our agreements through the World Trade Organization and other existing mechanisms. We have to pressure our trading partners to end unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters, non-tariff barriers on U.S. exports, and artificially devalued currency, like China’s, that puts U.S. companies at a perpetual disadvantage. As President, my trade policy will open foreign markets to create and support good middle-class jobs – for American workers.
At a very minimum we need to stop giving tax incentives to companies to shift job overseas. And we need to reward companies who invest in America.
But this is not enough. I have seen first hand that our federal efforts to help workers retain their jobs are weak, our efforts to come in after there is a plant closing are inadequate, and our strategies to make sure capital is available to create new businesses in those communities are non-existent. So we need to have a new aggressive strategy to make sure that we can compete and keep those good jobs here in American and that we are reinvesting in those workers and communities that are being burdened by globalization and not benefiting from it.
As President, I will make strategic, long-term investments into American infrastructure to create more high-wage jobs. I will expand federal funding for basic research, expand the deployment of broadband technology, and make the research and development tax credit permanent so that businesses can invest in innovation and create high-paying, secure jobs. And I will make investments in education, training, and workforce development so that Americans can leverage our strengths – our ingenuity and entrepreneurialism – to create new high-wage jobs and prosper in a world economy.