Where do the Presidential Candidates Stand on Trade?

Isaac Sorkin and Abigail Jones, apparently working under the direction of Lael Brainard, have prepared a very nice table on the candidates' trade positions for the Brookings Institution: Candidate Issue Index: Trade.

Sorkin and Jones have looked through voting records and statements to compile brief explanations of the candidates' positions on trade in general, NAFTC, China, FTAs, Doha, and trade adjustment assistance.  Four Democrats and four Republicans are included.

Here's one of the pages as an example of the format (of course not every one is still in).  If you click on the image the text is larger:

Comments

[Peter Gallagher]

Thanks for this pointer, Ben.

But how about a comment? I'd like to hear from a US trade analyst how to evaluate these things.

Foreigners would probably vote for McCain on the basis of this. He seems to be most positively engaged with the multilateral system and apparently least determined to do something silly (and harmful) like give more US taxpayers' funds to rich farmers.

On the Democrat side none of the Candidates has said anything recently that indicates much thinking about trade: it's all 'safety first' stuff, avoiding any commitment except to maintain big welfare payments for big farms. Why this should be good for Democrats I can't think: unless this is the Iowa (pulses, livestock) and New Hampshire (dairy?) effect.

What do you think?