(Adds Trump comment on TPP)
By Emily Stephenson and Amanda Becker
MONESSEN, Pennsylvania/WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) -
R epublican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed
to force Canada and Mexico to renegotiate the NAFTA trade
agreement with the United States if elected, as part of an
effort to protect and restore American jobs.
Trump criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement as
a U.S. job killer, saying he would be willing to scrap the pact
if Canada and Mexico were unwilling to budge. He also tried to
link Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to the deal on the eve of
a meeting in Ottawa of the "three amigos," the leaders of the
three NAFTA signatories: the United States, Mexico and Canada.
In his most detailed speech on trade, the presumptive
Republican nominee said he would pull the United States out of
negotiations for a deal among 12 Pacific Rim nations and
promised to use executive power to resolve trade disputes with
China.
Trump also pledged to revive the U.S. steel and aluminum
industry, speaking at an aluminum scrap company in Monessen,
Pennsylvania, nearly 30 miles (50 km) south of Pittsburgh, the
one-time American steelmaking capital.
Trump has identified Pennsylvania as a state he believes he
can wrest from the Democrats in the Nov. 8 election. He also
campaigned on Tuesday in Ohio, which like Pennsylvania is a Rust
Belt state.
Democratic President Barack Obama won both states in 2008
and 2012, but manufacturing job losses have led to voter anxiety
in the region.
"I'm going tell our NAFTA partners that I intend to
immediately renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a
better deal for our workers. And I don't mean just a little bit
better, I mean a lot better," Trump said in Pennsylvania.
If Canada and Mexico do not agree to renegotiate the pact,
Trump said he would notify them under the agreement's terms
"that America intends to withdraw from the deal."
He tried to tie his Democratic rival to the pact, approved
in 1993 during the administration of her husband, President Bill
Clinton, as he called NAFTA one of the "worst legacies" of the
Clinton years.
On MSNBC after Trump's speech, Clinton spokeswoman Kristina
Schake called the wealthy New York businessman the "king of
outsourcing," in an apparent reference to Trump-branded products
such as suits and ties made overseas.
"It was full of hypocrisy and misstatements and outright
lies," Schake said.
Trade has been a vulnerability for Clinton, who struggled
for white, blue-collar votes in her Democratic primary race
against U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, who criticized her for
supporting trade deals and said she was too close to Wall
Street.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Trump echoed Sanders' criticism on Tuesday, saying Clinton
supported the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, while
she was secretary of state and only opposed it once she was
running for president. Clinton's campaign said she opposed the
agreement because it was not strong enough on currency
manipulation and other areas.
Clinton has said she will evaluate each trade deal on its
merits but does not believe the TPP is good for U.S. workers.
Sanders now says he will vote for Clinton in November,
although he has not formally withdrawn from the race.
Trump said he saw no way to fix the TPP, calling it a "death
blow" for American manufacturing. Although China is not part of
the agreement, Trump said Beijing might try to enter it "through
the back door" later on.
Later, during a rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio, Trump said
the deal was "just a continuing rape of our country."
Just hours before Trump spoke, Clinton allies sought to
pre-empt the planned trade speech by saying Trump's policies
amounted to empty promises.
Earlier, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told a trade
conference in Washington that "Trump embodies everything that is
wrong with our current trade policy. He has consistently sent
American jobs overseas to line his own pockets."
The AFL-CIO, which collectively represents more than 12
million workers, making it the largest U.S. labor federation,
endorsed Clinton this month.
POPULIST ANGER
Both Clinton and Trump have acknowledged that Britain's vote
to leave the European Union signaled a global economic
frustration among working-class voters that could reverberate in
the U.S. election.
"There is a lot of legitimate anxiety, fear and even anger
in many parts of our country because people feel like the
economy has failed them," Clinton said in Denver on Tuesday. "I
think this is going to be one of the defining issues in this
election."
Trump has seized on the historic Brexit vote to bolster his
argument that voters are rising up against establishment
leaders, saying Americans would reject the "global elite" and
support his presidential candidacy.
But Trump has broken with Republican Party orthodoxy in
criticizing trade deals, and has threatened to slap tariffs on
Mexican and Chinese imports. His rhetoric has drawn criticism
from many economists, who say such practices could spark trade
wars.
As Trump spoke, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is
usually in sync with prominent Republicans on trade policy, said
on Twitter: "Under Trump's trade plans, we would see higher
prices, fewer jobs, and a weaker economy."
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