We’ll be watching the candidate debate tonight and grading both the candidates and ABC on whether they discuss the issues that really matter to voters– jobs, the economy, and enforcing our trade laws.

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From States News Service:

The following information was released by the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton

“The FDA has now tripled its estimate for the number of deaths connected to the blood-thinning drug, heparin. The latest figures indicate that as many as 62 Americans have died because of allergic reactions to heparin products. The FDA’s analysis came after we learned a Chinese factory used a cheap heparin substitute made from animal cartilage in heparin products sold in the United States by Baxter International.”

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said the United States should build on the North American Free Trade Agreement by negotiating a new free-trade deal with the 27 member states of the European Union.

“I am an unashamed and unabashed defender of NAFTA. I am an unabashed supporter of free-trade agreements. In fact, it would be interesting … to have a free-trade agreement between ourselves and the European Union,” McCain said in a speech to the World Affairs Council.

The United States and the EU already have low tariffs on most of the manufactured goods that cross the Atlantic. However, the U.S. and Europe have opted to deal with contentious agricultural issues within the context of World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade talks, rather than negotiate a bilateral trade deal that would phase out tariffs on each other’s farm goods.

-From ‘Pacific Shipper’

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 MSNBC reports that Hillary Clinton met with the Communications Workers of America (CWA) today and said she would oppose the Colombia trade deal and fix NAFTA:

“As I have been saying for some time, no trade deal with Colombia while violence against trade unionists continues. I was very disappointed that President Bush decided yesterday to try to push the Colombian deal through Congress. Well, I have news for President Bush. As I have said for months. I oppose the deal. I have spoken out against the deal. I will vote against the deal, and I will do everything I can to urge the Congress to reject the Colombian free trade deal.”

In a further story on the CWA event, MSNBC noted that Barack Obama also declared his opposition to a Colombia FTA, noting that “because when organizing workers puts an organizer’s life at risk, as it does in Colombia, it makes a mockery of our labor protections. We’ve got news for White House, we’ve got news for America. It’s not the Department of Management, it’s the Department of Labor, and we are here to take it back!”

A funny thing: a quick check of U.S. Census Bureau data shows that the U.S. trade deficit with Colombia in 2007 was $880 million. That’s a relatively miniscule amount when compared to the $256 BILLION trade deficit that the U.S. racked up with China last year. And so we ask, why aren’t the candidates mentioning China as well, another country where labor organizers are often brutally represed?

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In Memphis this past weekend, Hillary Clinton proposed a cabinet position for a “Poverty Czar.” She suggested that the job would be “solely and fully devoted to ending poverty as we know it, that will focus the attention of our nation on this issue and never let it go.”

Mrs. Clinton could help to do this by creating good paying manufacturing jobs, and should start by saving the ones that we still have in the U.S. Step one would be strong enforcement of U.S. trade law.

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?

With polls showing a tightening race in Pennsylvania, Senator Barack Obama appeared on CBS this morning and was asked about China. The Senator offered some criticism of Beijing, but CandidateWatch believes he didn’t go far enough in presenting proposals that would support of American manufacturing. Here’s the relevant transcript:

HARRY SMITH: …in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where the candidate had harsh words for America’s fastest growing economic rival.

OBAMA: I am a strong believer in free trade, but I think that we have not been very savvy negotiators when it comes to China. I think they’ve played us. They definitely are stealing our intellectual property, and that has direct consequences in terms of the bottom lines for businesses here in the United States.

SMITH: …and there is concern about China’s violations of human rights.

SMITH: Should we be a full participant in the Olympic games?

OBAMA: I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, I think that what’s happened in Tibet, China’s support of the Sudanese government in Darfur, is a real problem. I’m hesitant to make the Olympics a site of political protest because I think it’s partly about bringing the world together.

CandidateWatch suggests a more direct answer—one that all the candidates should give: “China cheats, but I won’t let them get away with it any more. China dumps products, subsidizes its manufacturing, and artificially manipulates its currency—all in violation of world trade law. As president, I will strongly enforce existing U.S. trade law to halt the downward spiral of American manufacturing.”

A relevant excerpt from Hillary Clinton’s remarks to the AFL-CIO conference in Philadelphia today:

“Yes, we will finally get tough on China. Right now, China’s steel comes here and our jobs go there. I testified before the international trade commission to try to put the brakes on the dumping of steel in our market. They manipulate their currency, they give illegal subsidies, they abuse workers’ rights. And what do we get in return? Tainted fish, lead-laced toys, and poisoned pet food and polluted pharmaceuticals. That is a bad deal for America. When I’m President, China will be a trade partner not a trade master. And we’re going to get that done.”

Can you give us some specifics Hillary? Want to tell us what you’ll do regarding China’s currency manipulation?

At a campaign appearance in Raleigh yesterday Senator Clinton said she would call for a trade time out. Specifically, she said: “I will call for a time out to fix NAFTA. It’s time we said to the rest of the world we are happy for you to be our trading partner. I will also get tough on China for manipulating their currency. I will appoint a new trade prosecutor. China is a growing economy - we want them to expand but they should live by the rules.”

The Bush administration has never designated China a currency manipulator despite worldwide agreement that Beijing artificially devalues its currency. A good first step would be for a U.S. president to have his Treasury Department cite China for currency manipulation, thus opening up a range of U.S. remedies via the ITC.

Senator Barack Obama recently unveiled a new Indiana television ad entitled ‘For Decades.’ Standing in front of an idle steel plant, Obama opines, “I moved to Chicago to help workers whose lives were torn apart when steel plants like this one left town.” He then offers, “We’ll fix our trade laws, end tax breaks for companies who ship jobs overseas, and give them to companies who create jobs here - in America.”

The funny thing is, we already have trade laws on the books. We don’t need to fix them so much as ENFORCE them.