Oct. 9 Republican debate transcript

Gerry Seib: Governor Romney.
Governor Romney, trade keeps popping up here, so let's bore in on it a little bit. By one estimate, the U.S. has lost 5 million jobs to overseas trade since 1989, and the U.S. must borrow every day $2 billion from overseas to pay for its imports. President Bush says trade is still good for America.

Are you a Bush Republican on trade?

Romney: Well, I believe in trade, but I believe in opening up markets to American goods and services. And it's been calculated that the average family in America is $9,000 a year richer because we have the ability to sell products around the world, and a lot of people in this country make their living making products that go around the world.

But it's also true that the people who negotiate these agreements, the people who sit down with the Chinese and sit down with the Mexicans and others, are people, by and large, who've spent their life in politics, and the politicians come together and try and understand how the economy works.

I think I'm probably the only guy on the stage who's spent most of his career in the business world. I understand how the economy works. I understand how if you make a certain adjustment in the agreement, it's going to have a huge impact on the United States.

And so for instance, if we agree to sit down with China, I understand that if we don't get real careful and protect patents and designs and technology, that what we tend to sell the most of, those kinds of things, intellectual property, is going to get stolen by the Chinese or by others, that we have to recognize agreements have to be in our benefit, not just in their benefit. And so as I look across the agreements we've made, I recognize we're going to have to do a better job. We're going to have to have people who understand how the business world works, how the economy works, and make sure that the playing field really is level by having people that know something about the economy and understand the business world being part of that effort.

I want to make sure that the American worker gets a fair shake. We need to make sure that the Chinese begin to float their currency, and they protect our designs and our patents and our technology. We need to make sure that the American workers don't have to carry the burden of extra taxes as we sell our products around the world. They come here without that tax embedded. We can do a better job, and I want to do a better job for the American worker.

And by the way, this is key for Michigan. And for me, Michigan is personal. I'm going to go to work to help Michigan. (Applause.)

Bartiromo: Thanks, Governor.
Mayor Giuliani, foreign acquisitions in the United States are headed for a record in 2007.
And yet some money is still turned away. A Dubai company could not acquire our ports. A Chinese company could not acquire Unocal.

Has this company -- has this country become protectionist, or are there serious, real national security concerns?

Giuliani: Well, I think we're on a verge of going in one direction or another. I mean, for example, if you want to get specific, the four trade deals with Peru, Colombia, Panama, South Korea that are in front of Congress right now, which the Democrats are trying to block, would be good deals for the United States. In three of the four of them, we would actually get to export more than we're importing. (Chuckles.) Why they would want to block this I can't understand. We're already importing about 98 percent -- 90 to 98 percent from those countries. We would actually get to export more, and we would increase our exports.

So yes, we have to improve our free trade agreements. I think you got to almost separate them into two different categories. There's economic protection, and then there's protection for safety, security and legal rights. And I don't think we've done a particularly good job on the second, and we have to improve those agreements. But we can't throw out the baby with the bath water. We can't say because these agreements weren't perfect, because they have problems, because they have issues, we're going to turn our back on free trade.

Our percentage of our economy that now depends on exports has gone up from 9 percent to 12 percent; we're a country that depends on exports. And we're also an entrepreneurial country.

We're a country that should think about all these people that are coming out of poverty in China and India and elsewhere -- we should think of them as new customers. We should be thinking about what could we sell to them. Energy independence. Health care. There's so much we can sell to them. Let's get back our entrepreneurial spirit rather than having our head down.

Bartiromo: So, yes or no, should a Dubai company be able to own 20 percent of NASDAQ?

Giuliani: Sure, if they are -- if they are considered to be safe, if they -- if they -- if they pass safety and security clearances. Unfortunately, that deal was done so hastily, it was done so quickly, nobody can tell whether they could or they couldn't. But you just can't rule out foreign companies. There's a whole procedure you go through as to whether or not are they safe, are they secure. We cannot stop doing business with the rest of the world. If we do -- this is one of the reasons our depression became a Great Depression, because we erected such high tariffs that we extended the depression from two or three years to 10 or 11 years.