Oct. 9 Republican debate transcript

Bartiromo: Very quickly down the line, same question. Should a Dubai company be able to own 20 percent of NASDAQ? Congressman?

Paul: If there is no conflict with national security, certainly, yes, they should.

Bartiromo: This is the story, Dubai owning NASDAQ. Is there a security issue?

Paul: I don't think they're a threat to our national security, no. So they would be able to.

Huckabee: I think it really matters as to whether or not they're going to be -- there's going to be a fair trade. And the fact is, we don't have fair trade. And that's the issue we've got to address. Can they buy a company? Sure. But our real problem continues to be that an American company is having to pay an extraordinarily high tax on everything they produce, but the countries who are importing to us don't have the same border adjustability that we do.

And that's why we're losing jobs here, that's why people in Michigan are going -- looking for something to do, and that's what has to change, and it's not being changed, and this party is going to have to start addressing it, or we're going to get our britches beat next year.

Bartiromo: Senator McCain.

McCain: Yes, of course, they have to pass the required security requirements and everything like that. But I'm a student of history. Every time the United States has become protectionist and listened to the siren song that you're hearing partially on this stage tonight, we've paid a very heavy price. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Acts in the 1930s were direct contributors to World War II. It sounds like a lot of fun to bash Chinese and others, but free trade has been the engine of our economy in the last half of this year, it will continue to be, and free trade should be the continuing principle that guides this nation's economy.

Bartiromo: Governor.

Romney: Of course you let a country invest in the United States, because we're going to have to stop thinking always in terms of defense and trying to keep other people out. The key is that America can compete around the world and win, and we do. In product after product, service after service, we're the best in the world. But we have to make sure that as we enter into agreements with other nations, we make sure that those agreements are in our benefit as well as theirs; usually that's the case, but not always, and in some cases it's not.

We're going to make sure that our goods and services are sold around the world, that they're not held up, that our technology is not stolen. And we're going to make sure that America gets the best shake in these agreements, and we -- and for heck -- you got to realize this country can compete with anyone in the world, has before. We'll always -- we do not rein in -- put a moat around ourselves. We've put down the drawbridge and say, "Let's go out and compete."

Bartiromo: Senator?

Thompson: The answer is yes. Dubai would own 20 percent of NASDAQ, but NASDAQ, under this deal, as I understand it, would gain more than 30 percent of the Dubai company.

It all depends on national security issues. Doesn't seem to be one there. But we should look at all these deals carefully because we have a vast infrastructure. The great portion of it is in private hands. There's no way, frankly, we can protect it all. So we need to do everything that we can to make sure that we're doing all that we can to protect the infrastructure we've got and scrutinize these deals, number one, first and foremost, from a national security standpoint.

Bartiromo: Congressman Hunter.

Hunter: No, because I don't trust them. And I don't trust them because a few years ago Dubai, while an American Customs agent was trying to stop them, set for delivery a set of nuclear triggers to an anonymous recipient in Islamabad, probably for the A.Q. Khan network. That went directly against American interests. So I would not do that.

And to all my colleagues who talk about the joy of free trade, that requires one thing: good business deals. We've made the only business deal in the world with 132 other competitors where they get to have a rebate on their taxes and then put a block up of 15 to 20 percent tariff against our goods, and we don't get to do the same thing. That's why we have a trade deficit with countries that have higher labor rates than the United States.

So we're short on good businessmen, and I would junk those bad trade deals, bring them back to the table, and I'd practice mirror trade. If a country wants to put a 15 percent tariff against the United States, they're going to see that reflected back at them. If they want to take it down to 1 percent, we'll take it down to one, but there's not going to be a one-way street any longer.

Bartiromo: Thank you.

Senator Brownback.

Brownback: Yes, I think of the people on this stage I'm the only that's worked in the trade field. I was in the trade field as White House fellow in the first Bush administration.

If this party walks away from free trade, we're going the wrong way as a party. And I think Congressman Hunter is a wonderful man. The United States is a low-trade -- low-tariff country. I think our average tariff on anything that we have a tariff on -- and most things we don't -- is at 4 percent, so the negotiations we do are always with countries that have higher tariffs. And it's the objective that we have is to get those down, and we've had a decent record. What we've got to do now, I think, is really focus in on China's currency manipulation and intellectual property rights.

Bartiromo: So the answer is yes.

Brownback: Yes.

Tancredo: No, if -- I'll tell you. If Dubai wanted to buy Wal-Mart, I might think about it. But if they wanted to buy something else that would have, in this case, certainly more of an impact on our national security interests, I'd say, no, we'd have to think about that in a totally different way.

It is exactly the same with regard to China. There are things that we should have thought of in the first place when we passed the PNTR, which I voted against, along with Duncan Hunter. And I absolutely agree that trade is a great idea in many respects. But when you trade with people who are your potential enemy, and they have shown a willingness to use that economic opportunity to actually increase their threats to the United States, I'm not for trading with them at all.