(Bloomberg) -- In the heart of the industrial Midwest, front-running Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders called on President Donald Trump to abandon his new Nafta deal.
“The Nafta treaty that Trump renegotiated with Mexico will still allow companies like General Motors to send our jobs to Mexico,” Sanders said during a rally at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan.
“So today, I challenge Donald Trump: For once in your life, keep your campaign promises,” the Vermont senator said. “Go back to the drawing board on Nafta. Do not send this treaty to Congress unless it includes strong and swift enforcement mechanisms to raise the wages of workers and to prevent corporations from outsourcing American jobs to Mexico.”
The remarks by Sanders set down a marker on what’s likely to be a major issue in the 2020 election in a critical part of the country that drove Trump’s victory in 2016. He channeled disenchantment with Nafta and the negative impact of free trade to narrowly win Michigan, which promises to be a major battleground state in 2020.
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