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WASHINGTON : Democratic White House runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama fired off fresh economic salvos against China on Monday as they wooed blue-collar voters reeling from foreign trade competition.
Clinton accused the Bush administration of failing to protect American workers, and called for better trade enforcement, as she campaigned in gritty Pennsylvania, which holds a Democratic primary on April 22.
"We need solutions to fix our trade laws, build a strong manufacturing base, and stand up to China and say that unsafe toys and unfair currency practices are unacceptable," Clinton told the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) in Pittsburgh.
"Our manufacturers and manufacturing workers have shaped our past and you will drive our future - and if you give me the chance, I will stand strong for you every single day as president," she said.
Clinton said she would help US industries hurt by Chinese imports and would use the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to challenge other countries for violating trade rules.
She said President George W. Bush had failed to enforce trade laws and not challenged China's currency "manipulation."
But Obama, also addressing the AAM, said Clinton had herself supported normalising US trade relations with China when she was first lady in the 1990s, along with other trade pacts bitterly resented by US manufacturers.
"That's not respect (for voters). That's just more of the same old Washington politics. And we can't afford more of the same," he said.
China, according to Obama, had unfairly tilted the playing field by "dumping goods into our market," violating intellectual property rights, exporting unsafe toys and "grossly undervaluing" its currency.
"That's why we need to finally confront the issue of trade with China," he said, demanding that "China itself plays by the rules and acts as a positive force for balanced world growth."
The AAM is a non-partisan body which brings together some leading manufacturers and the United Steelworkers Union, and has been pushing for tough action against Beijing in its "China Cheats" campaign.
China has frequently been in candidates' cross-hairs during the US presidential race.
Just last week, Clinton urged Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in protest over Tibet and Darfur. - AFP/de
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