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Mike Huckabee on Trade and Economics
This candidate has withdrawn from the election
He signed a resolution trying to enforce trade law against subsidized Canadian lumber imports.
Resolution of Southern Governor's Assn. on Lumber Subsidies 01-SGA3 on Sep 9, 2001
Governor Huckabee's record on trade is limited, but positive. In 2003, he pushed for free trade with Mexico, calling for a "strong market of the Americas" and supporting NAFTA. In 2006, he signed an agreement between Arkansas and a South Korea trade group, calling for increased commerce between the southern state and South Korea.
"If somebody in the presidency doesn't begin to understand that we can't have free trade if it's not fair trade, we're going to continually see people who have worked for 20 and 30 years for companies one day walk in and get the pink slip and told 'I'm sorry but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here.'"
"I believe in free trade and allowing the marketplace to push innovative ideas to the top and prices to the bottom. Perhaps the most compelling challenge is ensuring that a free trade correspondingly represents a fair trade."
From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.161 Jan 4, 2007
Huckabee supported raising the minimum wage in Arkansas from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour, but it was done "as a safeguard against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have increased the minimum wage yearly for inflation."
Arkansas News Bureau, 4/13/06
"I don't think that union members ought to be forced to make political contributions they don't personally want to make. I too come from a right to work state. I believe people ought to have the opportunity to join a union, but shouldn't be forced to. People should make their union votes on secret ballots. I agree with all of that. What Republicans had better understand is that when there's a growing disparity between the pay of the people at the top and the people on the bottom, you're going to create the kind of environment in which unions are going to flourish. So if Republicans and CEO-types and boards are afraid of unions they better start sharing the wealth."
"It has been our policy to pay farmers a stipend for their crops to ensure the farmers will receive a guaranteed minimum price. Some conservatives believe that all agricultural subsidies should be discontinued and allow the market to function. In an ideal world, this would be good practice, but American farmers are competing with subsidized farmers in Europe and Asia, and the fixed costs faced by farmers involving land, equipment, seed, and supplies."
From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.172-173
"We need subsidies to help our farmers compete with heavily subsidized farmers in Europe and Asia, and to insulate them from the effects of natural disasters."
Campaign website, www.mikehuckabee.com, "Issues" Sep 1, 2007
Huckabee has said that he generally is "not as concerned about China" as he is about other more radical and threatening regimes.