Mexico and Canada yesterday voiced concerns about calls by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, as the Democratic presidential hopefuls compete to adopt the most sceptical stance towards free trade before next week's Ohio primary.
In a televised debate on Tuesday night, Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton both threatened to pull out of Nafta if elected president unless Canada and Mexico agreed to strengthen labour and environmental standards.
Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the US, told the Financial Times the US, Canada and Mexico had all benefited from Nafta and warned against reopening negotiations. "Mexico does not support reopening Nafta," he said. "It would be like throwing a monkey wrench into the engine of North American competitiveness."
Mexican diplomats say a renegotiation could resurrect commercial disputes and barriers to trade that the agreement was designed to overcome.
Jim Flaherty, Canada's finance minister, expressed "concern" about the remarks by the Democratic candidates: "Nafta is a tremendous benefit to Americans and perhaps the [candidates] have not had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the benefit to Americans and the American economy of Nafta."
Nafta, which removed -tariffs on most trade between the US, Canada and Mexico when it was implemented in 1994, has become the focus of debate about the exodus of manufacturing jobs from Ohio.
The state has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs - nearly a quarter of its previous total - since Nafta was introduced, although experts say the deal is only one of many factors to blame for the decline. "Nafta has become a proxy for the -economic problems facing Ohio," says Jon Honeck, a researcher at -Policy Matters Ohio, a think-tank.
Mr Obama, Democratic frontrunner, has targeted Mrs Clinton over Nafta because the deal was agreed by her husband, Bill Clinton, and was trumpeted at the time as a landmark achievement of his presidency. Mr Clinton has already renegotiated Nafta once - after taking office in 1993 he agreed separate labour and environmental accords with Mexico and Canada. Those side-agreements have often since been criticised for lacking substance.
In Tuesday's debate, Mrs Clinton said she had always been a sceptic about the agreement but acknowledged she had remained silent about her doubts at the time. Mr Obama accused her of claiming credit for the "good things" associated with her husband's administration while distancing herself from its failures.
Both candidates say they support free trade but want tougher environmental and labour standards imposed on trading partners to create a more level playing field. Mrs Clinton says she favours a "time-out" on new trade deals. In a TV advert she pledges to "fight to change trade deals like Nafta".
Mr Obama said the US "should use the hammer of a potential opt-out" to force Canada and Mexico to reopen talks.
Nachama Soloveichik, of the Club for Growth, a pro-free trade group, said: "The Democratic party of 2008 is becoming increasingly protectionist. We see them moving away from the relatively centrist position they held in the 1990s under President Clinton. They are appealing to the worst instincts of the American people but it will ultimately be the American people who lose if we retreat from free trade."
