Since I just reviewed Clinton's new plan on trade and the economy, it's worth looking at Obama's campaign website pronouncements.  Less specific at this point.  Though he and Hillary have been taking mild jabs at each other on the trade agreements, trying to look tough.  Note that I am happy with the two campaigns' cynicism on trade, but distrust Obama's economic advisor Austan Goolsbee and Hillary's Robert Rubin connections.

Here is what Obama currently has on his campaign website:

Obama believes that trade with foreign nations should strengthen the American economy and create more American jobs. He will stand firm against agreements that undermine our economic security.

*  Fight for Fair Trade: Obama will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. He will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm against agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement that fail to live up to those important benchmarks. Obama will also pressure the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and stop countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S. exports.
*  Amend the North American Free Trade Agreement: Obama believes that NAFTA and its potential were oversold to the American people. Obama will work with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to fix NAFTA so that it works for American workers.
*  Improve Transition Assistance: To help all workers adapt to a rapidly changing economy, Obama would update the existing system of Trade Adjustment Assistance by extending it to service industries, creating flexible education accounts to help workers retrain, and providing retraining assistance for workers in sectors of the economy vulnerable to dislocation before they lose their jobs.

Weak tea.  There is a modest bit more muscle, especially on currency manipulation in another Obama economic policy document (pdf document) which says:

Fight for Fair Trade: At 7 percent of Gross Domestic Product, our trade deficit has never been higher. Barac Obama will fight for a trade policy that opens up foreign markets to support good American jobs. He will use trade agreements to spread good labor and environmental standards around the world and stand firm agains agreements like the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) that fail to live up to those importan benchmarks. Obama will also pressure the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements and sto countries from continuing unfair government subsidies to foreign exporters and nontariff barriers on U.S exports. Obama will fight for stronger protections for U.S. intellectual property, and – in the case of China inparticular – an end to an artificially devalued currency that puts U.S. companies at a perpetual disadvantage.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is featuring a more specific economic plan.  It covers many points, but not really in the detail sought by policy wonks... understandable because most voters are not wonks.  The pdf document is here.

Among the trade related points are:

*  Ending tax breaks for companies shipping jobs overseas;

*   Restore a vibrant manufacturing sector in America by developing a manufacturing strategy, investing in R&D, espanding a Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, etc.

And more specifically: 

*  Double the size of the U.S. Trade Representative's enforcement unit to enforce the rules in existing trade agreements.

*  "Modernize" Trade Adjustment Assistance to help workers that lose their jobs because of "global competition";

*  Review trade agreements every 5 years to determine whether they are meeting their promises.  (Note:  See the CPA Trade Agreement Moratorium and Review policy here).

*  Time out for Trade - This looks promising.  Clinton will not enter new trade agreements until "here administration has reviewed all existing agreements and designed a genuinely pro-American, pro-worker trade policy...".  The devil is in the details, but its a good start.

This diary's title could be Obama vs. Clinton, but I like Clinton vs. Clinton.

It all started last week.  Obama said:

Clinton supported the North American Free Trade Agreement but that she now says "we need a time-out on trade." 

Then:

Clinton's campaign fired back at Obama, charging the Illinois senator with misrepresenting Clinton's position on trade and floating ideas originally proposed by the New York senator.
"Recently he falsely claimed that Hillary said that NAFTA was a 'boon' to the economy. Now, Obama is resting his argument on a single paraphrase from an article written twelve years ago," Clinton's campaign said in an emailed statement.

David Sirota, agreeing with Obama, writes this about Clinton:

Hillary Clinton has made statements unequivocally trumpeting NAFTA as the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Buffalo News reports that back in 1998, Clinton attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and thanked praised corporations for mounting "a very effective business effort in the U.S. on behalf of NAFTA." Yes, you read that right: She traveled to Davos to thank corporate interests for their campaign ramming NAFTA through Congress.

On November 1, 1996, United Press International reported that on a trip to Brownsville, Texas, Clinton "touted the president's support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it would reap widespread benefits in the region."

The Associated Press followed up the next day noting that Hillary Clinton touted the fact that "the president would continue to support economic growth in South Texas through initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement."

In her memoir, Clinton wrote, "Senator Dole was genuinely interested in health care reform but wanted to run for President in 1996. He couldn't hand incumbent Bill Clinton any more legislative victories, particularly after Bill's successes on the budget, the Brady bill and NAFTA."

Yes, we are all expected to just forget that, so that Hillary Clinton's campaign can manufacture supposed "outrage" that anyone would say she supported NAFTA - all at a time her chief strategist, Mark Penn, simultaneously heads a firm that is right now pushing to expand NAFTA into South America.

If Clinton had a change of heart, she should say so.  It is legitimate to change your mind... indeed many others have changed their mind. 

Indeed, John Maynard Keynes said:

When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

Clinton should not merely deny that she thought NAFTA was a good idea.  Just say NAFTA hurt America, though you thought it was a good idea.  Then say let's fix our trade policy.  Simple.

China's January 08 trade surplus grew by 22.7% over January 07.  Big stuff.  The U.S. economy slows, but China keeps rolling.  The government owns much of the economy there, manipulates its currency, creates barriers to imports, tariffs imports through value added taxes, and subsidizes its own businesses in illegal ways. 

Free trade they say.  Hardly.

China's economy will grow by 10% this year.  Its pollution will grow, adding to the Asian brown cloud drifting across the Pacific and increasing the particulates and carbon in the atmosphere. 

We could balance the trade deficit unilaterally by countervailing the Chinese unfair practices, but we simply don't.