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Mike Huckabee on Trade and Economics

Globalization has become a reality that has challenged traditional economies all over the world. Increased trade and agreements between nations have raised debate in the United States about what is the right balance between global exchange and protectionism. This topic includes information about candidate positions on: free trade and free trade agreements, farm subsidies, unionization, an increase in the federal minimum wage, and trade relations with China.

The issues

Mike Huckabee supports unrestricted free trade

Governor Huckabee's record on trade is limited, but positive. In 2003, he pushed for free trade with Mexico, calling for a "strong market of the Americas" and supporting NAFTA. In 2006, he signed an agreement between Arkansas and a South Korea trade group, calling for increased commerce between the southern state and South Korea.

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"If somebody in the presidency doesn't begin to understand that we can't have free trade if it's not fair trade, we're going to continually see people who have worked for 20 and 30 years for companies one day walk in and get the pink slip and told 'I'm sorry but everything you spent your life working for is no longer here.'"

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"I believe in free trade and allowing the marketplace to push innovative ideas to the top and prices to the bottom. Perhaps the most compelling challenge is ensuring that a free trade correspondingly represents a fair trade."

From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.161 Jan 4, 2007

Mike Huckabee is neutral on an increase in the federal minimum wage

Huckabee supported raising the minimum wage in Arkansas from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour, but it was done "as a safeguard against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have increased the minimum wage yearly for inflation."

Arkansas News Bureau, 4/13/06

Mike Huckabee supports government subsidies to farmers

"It has been our policy to pay farmers a stipend for their crops to ensure the farmers will receive a guaranteed minimum price. Some conservatives believe that all agricultural subsidies should be discontinued and allow the market to function. In an ideal world, this would be good practice, but American farmers are competing with subsidized farmers in Europe and Asia, and the fixed costs faced by farmers involving land, equipment, seed, and supplies."

From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.172-173

"We need subsidies to help our farmers compete with heavily subsidized farmers in Europe and Asia, and to insulate them from the effects of natural disasters."

Campaign website, www.mikehuckabee.com, "Issues" Sep 1, 2007

Mike Huckabee supports normal diplomatic and trade relations with China

Huckabee has said that he generally is "not as concerned about China" as he is about other more radical and threatening regimes.

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