Excerpts from Barack Obama’s remarks at the AFL-CIO conference on April 2. The Senator discuses job creation:

“Now, if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll acknowledge that we can’t stop globalization in its tracks and that opening new markets to our goods can help strengthen our economy. But what I refuse to accept is that we have to sign trade deals like the South Korea Agreement that are bad for American workers. What I oppose - and what I have always opposed - are trade deals that put the interests of multinational corporations ahead of the interests of Americans workers - like NAFTA, and CAFTA, and permanent normal trade relations with China.

“And I’ll also oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement if President Bush insists on sending it to Congress because the violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery of the very labor protections that we have insisted be included in these kinds of agreements. So you can trust me when I say that whatever trade deals we negotiate when I’m President will be good for American workers, and that they’ll have strong labor and environmental protections that we’ll enforce.”

Okay, so you oppose PNTR for China, Senator Obama? What are you going to do now? Can you lay out some concrete examples of what you’ll do when you take office? How about tackling China’s illegal currency manipulation? Or dumping? Or subsidies?

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