In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper which surfaced on Thursday, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was pressed over the issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
Biden voted in favor as a U.S. senator from Delaware for NAFTA, which was signed into law in the 1990s. Donald Trump ran on a promise to renegotiate the deal and did so, signing a new agreement (USMCA) into law early this year.
“You ask ‘What did [President Trump] do after he got elected’, and you brought up the tax bill. There’s something else he did. He negotiated NAFTA,” Tapper informed Biden, which prompted the former vice president to agree by admitting, “He did.”
“He renegotiated NAFTA,” Tapper reiterated. “Now when you ran for president and when Barack Obama ran for president, you both said that you would renegotiate NAFTA. You didn’t. [Trump] did. Nancy Pelosi said that the USMCA, which President Trump signed into law, ‘Is a victory for America’s workers’. Does he deserve credit for that?”
Biden responded, “No.”
He tried to deflect by claiming, “I think –you remember, he didn’t–wasn’t the one that pushed that particular one in the past. The House amended the bill, … so he couldn’t…” Continued Below
Tapper interjected to inform Biden that President Trump signed the historic USMCA deal.
Biden went on to say: “By the way, here’s what they amended: he was giving FARMA [National Farmers’ Retail and Markets Association] a way out, giving them a gigantic break, just like he’s doing now with FARMA. If you– they’re building plants overseas and getting tax breaks for it. That’s what it was about with him. And they said, ‘No, no, we’re not gonna do that’.
Tapper chimed in again to tell Biden that President Trump did in fact “renegotiate NAFTA”, adding, “And you didn’t, is the point.” Video Below
Biden blamed having a “Republican congress” for not getting a NAFTA deal negotiated. “Because we had a Republican congress that wouldn’t go along with us if we negotiated it,” he alleged.
Asked again if President Trump deserves credit for USMCA, Biden ultimately conceded that USMCA is “better than NAFTA”.
CNN's Jake Tapper confronts Joe Biden for his failed trade polices: President Trump “renegotiated NAFTA and you didn’t”https://t.co/REhg9pM00q pic.twitter.com/vgHEJIiaDX
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 10, 2020
Meanwhile:
Biden lied on CNN today and claimed he was "against NAFTA" after he voted for it in 1993.
But here's a clip of Biden in *2007* still defending NAFTA, saying it did not "aggrieve" him and that it was not a "problem." pic.twitter.com/ICIxAsaOHQ
— Andrew Clark (@AndrewHClark) September 10, 2020
You can read more about the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement HERE.
(Related: Joe Biden Campaigns On The ‘Buy American’ Slogan, Instantly Gets Roasted)
