McCain To Talk Free Trade In Latin America

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — John McCain will be in Latin America the next three days, talking up the subject of free trade with the U.S. McCain has to convince voters in states losing jobs to Mexico and other countries that free trade is a good thing for everyone in the long run.

His trip south of the border begins in Colombia. A proposed U.S.-Colombian free trade deal that McCain supports is currently stalled in Congress. McCain will also go to Mexico to talk about illegal immigration.

The likely Republican presidential nominee insists the trip to Latin America is not intended to be political and says he won’t criticize Barack Obama directly while abroad.

He made a similar pledge when he visited Canada but then took a swipe at the Democrat, suggesting without using Obama’s name that the Illinois senator’s opposition to NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement – was “nothing more than retreating behind protectionist walls.”