Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Poll: Americans Don't Like Our Current Trade Policy
Also in ForeignPolicy
JH Going Ballistic
Tad Daley
Israeli Soldier Filmed Shooting at Blindfolded Palestinian
The Taliban Strikes Back
Gary Brecher
Fidel Castro on Fidel Castro
Greg Grandin
As Obama Heads to Middle East and Europe, Let's Talk About U.S. Imperialism
Roberto Lovato
The Wall Street Journal reported on a new pollfrom the Pew Research Center that finds a majority of Americans oppose our status quo trade agreements, like NAFTA, WTO and the Peru FTA.
The poll shows,
48% said that free-trade agreements are a bad thing for the country, compared with 35% of the public who call them a good thing. This is up from an even 40%-40% split in November 2007 and from July 2004 when the results were reversed with 47% of respondents calling free-trade agreements positive, and 34% calling them negative.
The poll points out what many observers already know. From the first presidential contest in Iowa to early state battles in South Carolina and Wisconsin to Tuesday's approaching primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, trade has and continues to play a dominant role. This follows a 2006 election when 37 congressional challengers calling for a change to our status quo trade policies replaced NAFTA-supporting incumbents.
See more stories tagged with: public opinion, trade
Holly Shulman is the press officer at Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch.