Hilary Clinton's evolving position on trade

Kristin Jensen and Mark Drajem report on the way Hilary Clinton is positioning herself on trade.  Jensin and Drajem think that, as a candidate,  Clinton is less supportive of a liberal trading regime than her husband was, as President: Clinton Breaks With Husband's Legacy on Nafta Pact, China Trade   (Bloomberg, Mar 30) :

There was little evidence of a protectionist tilt to Clinton's trade views during either her 2000 campaign or first years in the Senate.  She... wasn't a major voice in trade-policy debates.

As she began to gear up for a White House run, Clinton became less of a free-trade booster and more skeptical about the payoff of globalization.

More recently:

She voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement in 2005...

She... [backed] legislation imposing trade sanctions on Chinese exports unless the government in Beijing agreed to stop holding down the value of the yuan.

...she sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warning about China's ownership of $350 billion of U.S. debt.

[She called for] a ``plan of action'' to reduce U.S. deficits when foreign-owned debt exceeds 25 percent of gross domestic product or the trade deficit reaches 5 percent of GDP.

... Clinton helped lead efforts to condemn the purchase of U.S. port facilities by DP World, a company based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates...

To help allay suspicions that she's been hijacked by free- traders from her husband's team, Clinton asked Thea Lee, the AFL- CIO's policy director, and Michael Wessel, who had been a top aide of Nafta foe and former House Democratic leader Richard Gephardt, into strategy discussions to debate pro-traders.

I like this bit:

In her interview with Bloomberg, Clinton was careful to describe Nafta as having been negotiated by the administration of President George H.W. Bush ``and then pushed through Congress in the Clinton administration.''