Mitt Romney Quotes

President Obama was right to make enforcement of those trade rules a priority and his creation, today, of a Trade Enforcement Unit is a massive step in the right direction.

I do think we need to hold countries accountable who violate trade agreements that are already in place. We need to get stronger about enforcement, that in the future if we strike a trade agreement, toughening up labor standards and environmental standards and enforcement standards is something we absolutely need to do.

Tariffs are only one tool in enforcing our global trade policy.

Most trade agreements arise from a desire to liberalise trade - making it easier to sell goods and services into one another's markets. Brexit will not.

Let me say at the outset that I do not reflexively oppose international trade.

If we want more trade in the world, we should establish bilateral trade agreements with other democratic countries. That way we can control the decision-making process. The major economic countries of the world will enter into those agreements.

The Clinton administration brought 65 cases from 1995 to 2000 before the World Trade Organization. The Bush administration has brought twelve. Twelve cases. They haven't even been able to stand up for our jobs.

It certainly was difficult to sell NAFTA because it's always difficult to sell open markets.

A key U.S. initiative in this trade war must be to develop reliable trading partners in the world.

Before the war the trade agreements program was an instrument for defense against the epidemic of destructive and demoralizing trade warfare. Today, with the end of the great holocaust finally within sight, this same instrument is transformed into a powerful device for shaping a better world.

You cannot close down free trade. What you've got to do is open up markets.

Can you have a free trade agreement with a country that isn't free?

After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments?

In all free trade agreements there are winners and losers.

Everybody talks about tariffs as the first thing. Tariffs are the last thing. Tariffs are part of the negotiation. The real trick is going to be increase American exports. Get rid of some of the tariff and non-tariff barriers to American exports.

I know something about trade agreements. I was proud to help President Clinton pass the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and create what is still the world's largest free-trade area, linking 426 million people and more than $12 trillion of goods and services.

Enforcing trade deals is spot on. Acting in the interest of American workers is correct. But large-scale tariffs are a terrible idea.

Let's start getting some free trade agreements started as soon as we can. We need to get on with it; we need to get a grip and make progress.

I am more interested in fair and balanced trade between nations than I am in free trade that encumbers us in a multinational pact that is refereed by the WTO.

I am not anti-trade. I am pro-trade. But I am pro-sensible trade.

Any bilateral trade and investment agreement must be comprehensive and address the full range of barriers to U.S. goods and services if it is to receive broad, bipartisan congressional support.

I've always been worried about Justin Trudeau's attitude towards trade. We saw during the softwood lumber negotiations that he failed to get an extension while President Obama was still in office.

While never the darling of pure free traders, measures to combat dumping, subsidies, and injurious import surges have always been deemed essential by open economies like the United States to maintain support for trade.

On trade, a Conservative government would challenge China's actions on canola and meat imports through the World Trade Organization and withdraw funding from the Chinese-run Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank.

If the two largest economies in the world don't show us a good example on trade liberalization, then you can't expect the smaller and weaker economies to take the risks. The initiative, the momentum and the drive really do have to come from Japan and the U.S.