Bush, other leaders defend NAFTA

NEW ORLEANS – President Bush and the leaders of Mexico and Canada delivered a forceful message Tuesday to the next president of the United States: Don’t mess with NAFTA.

Their warnings against tinkering with the North American Free Trade Agreement brought them into the presidential race on the day Pennsylvanians voted in a Democratic primary contest that focused on how free trade has cost the state many of its factory jobs.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon was particularly blunt, warning that weakening the 14-year-old pact would damage the Mexican economy and could cause “even greater migratory pressure” on Mexicans to cross the border to look for work in the U.S.

“We agreed that this is not the time to even think about amending it or canceling it. This is the time to strengthen and reinvigorate this free trade agreement,” he said.

Calderon said he would not meddle in the U.S. election, but would simply “speak to the person who will eventually be the president of the United States.”

Although Bush spoke with more nuance, he insisted, “Now is not the time to renegotiate NAFTA or walk away from NAFTA. Now is the time to make it work better for all our people, and now is the time to reduce trade barriers worldwide.”

With the economy in a slump, the Democratic presidential candidates have questioned free trade and NAFTA in an attempt to appeal to voters in states hard hit by the loss of manufacturing jobs to other countries.

Bush, Calderon, and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday completed a two-day meeting.

Harper, speaking with the others at a news conference in Gallier Hall, the old city hall here, said Canada would “be prepared for any possibility” on NAFTA’s future. But he made it clear he did not favor alterations.

“If one of our partners wants to negotiate NAFTA, we’ll do it. We’ll renegotiate,” Harper said, before quickly adding: “But this is not the position that we prefer.”