US Presidential Candidates’ trade policies

The Eyes on Trade blog summarizes remarks on trade policy by the economic advisors to Clinton, Obama and McCain. There has been little attention given to trade policies in the campaign so far. It's clear that one of the Candidates has a more populist -- less liberal -- approach than others.

No surprise that the populist is Mrs Clinton. According to her advisor, Gary Gensler, Mrs Clinton wants to "... move forward with smart trade to make sure it works for Americans", whatever that means. As Keven Hasslet (Mr McCain's advisor) says, it doesn't sound like Mrs Clinton wants to pursue more open markets.

Is any voter still assured (or misled) by 'cute' slogans like 'smart trade'? If you saw a sign in the supermarket identifying 'smart tomatoes' would it make you buy? What would you think it meant? Or would it strike you as just another piece of marketing babble?

Thanks to Simon Lester for drawing my attention to this story.

Tags for this entry: trade usa people obama clinton mccain