For Edwards, it’s déjà vu all over again on trade

	Video: In his own words Former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., touches upon the primary themes of his presidential campaign.
Corbis	Slide show: A public life The public and private challenges that John Edwards has faced throughout his political career.

Interactive

Veepstakes!
Who did msnbc.com readers pick as No. 2 on the GOP and Democratic tickets?

NBC News

Almost exactly four years ago in Iowa, when Edwards was running for the Democratic nomination, I asked him why he had voted for the China trade deal.

In his reply, he blamed the Bush administration for not punishing the Chinese for manipulating their currency to spur exports.

Last Thursday in Iowa, I asked him whether he now regretted voting for the China trade deal and whether competition from Chinese workers is a major reason why American manufacturing workers are so hard pressed.

Story continues below ↓

He replied, “I think America’s trade policy as a whole is why workers are suffering. I wouldn’t isolate any particular trade relationship or any particular trade deal.”

Edwards wants more enforcement
He added, “We need to enforce China trading responsibilities, which is not being done. They’re manipulating their currency. They’re sending goods into the United States that are not safe and are largely not being inspected. I think the president has a responsibility to enforce China’s trading obligations to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and that has not been done.”

Asked again whether he regretted his 2000 vote, he said, “Bringing them into the world trading community, subject to rules, makes some sense. But it doesn’t make any sense if you don’t enforce their responsibilities and don’t hold them accountable for their violations of those responsibilities.”

He then proceeded to denounce the Chinese for building up their military, for their too cozy relations with Sudan and Iran, and for “devastating the environment” by building one coal-fired power plant every week.

The 2002 vote to authorize President Bush to invade Iraq has become a mea culpa moment for Democratic presidential contenders. Edwards has ostentatiously confessed what he now sees as his error in that vote.

But the 2000 China vote hasn’t become a cause for repentance and confession.

Edwards’s rivals for the Democratic nomination Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd also voted for the China trade deal.

What Wellstone knew
Among the relatively few senators (only 15) voting 'no' were liberal Democratic senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota as well as Edwards’s conservative Republican colleague from North Carolina, Sen. Jesse Helms.

Click for related stories

China foes in House deploy Nazi analogy
Edwards details his trade policy
China faces pressure for faster currency appreciation

Did Wellstone and Helms have the wisdom to foresee consequences from the China trade deal that Edwards didn’t?

Or has the wheel simply turned, so that lowering trade barriers — once so popular in the Bill Clinton Era — now has become a cause for remorse because the consequences are now more apparent?

Picking the president: The candidates
Click to visit that candidate's MSNBC page or click the XML symbol for an RSS feed.

John McCain
Barack Obama