McCain, in Mexico, faults Obama on trade

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Mexico City, Jul: U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain took a veiled swipe at Democratic rival Barack Obama over trade on Thursday in the final leg of a Latin American trip aimed at showcasing the Arizona senator’s foreign policy credentials.

McCain, who has pledged not to play politics on foreign soil, has nonetheless used his visit to Colombia and Mexico this week to highlight his strong support for free trade and contrast that with the Illinois senator’s position.

Obama opposes a trade deal with Colombia and has threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which groups the United States, Canada and Mexico, if it is not altered to improve labor and environmental provisions.

After a meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, where the two leaders discussed immigration and drug trafficking, McCain criticized Obama, without naming him, for his position on NAFTA.

“I am disappointed at the suggestion that the United States should unilaterally reopen NAFTA,” McCain told reporters.“If there are issues that exist between our countries, whether it be the United States, Canada and Mexico, or other nations with whom we have engaged and ratified solemn treaties, the best way to do that is not in a unilateral fashion.”

Obama said during his primary election battle against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton he would he would reopen NAFTA negotiations. But since winning his party’s nomination, Obama has backed away from that position.

McCain visited a basilica on Thursday morning and held a lunch with American and Mexican business leaders, where trade featured high on the agenda.At a news conference in an airplane hanger, McCain touted his positions on immigration and praised an initiative to help stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.“The United States of America and the country of Mexico must secure our borders. That will require some walls, it will require virtual fences,” he said in response to a question about whether walls were needed on the U.S.-Mexican border.