Republican presidential candidate John McCain traveled to Canada Friday
and delivered a speech supporting the North American Free Trade
Agreement, NAFTA, a pact that Democratic hopeful Barack Obama has
criticized.
McCain told a group of business leaders in Ottawa
that if he is elected, the United States will honor its international
commitments to NAFTA.
During the Democratic primary, Obama said
the U.S. should negotiate with Canada and Mexico to add tougher
environmental and labor rules.
On Friday, Obama launched an
attack against McCain's proposal to allow offshore oil drilling in U.S.
coastal waters. Obama said the proposed drilling would not lower fuel
prices for many years.
McCain opposed such drilling when he ran
for president in 2000, but this week he said he supports giving
individual states the right to decide whether to allow oil drilling.
Separately,
the Obama campaign announced that the Illinois senator will campaign
next week for the first time with former rival Hillary Clinton.
Obama's campaign said the two senators will campaign together June 27,
but it released no further details.
The two also are scheduled
to meet in Washington Thursday, when Clinton is expected to introduce
Obama to some of her top campaign contributors. These meetings are a
step towards unifying the Democratic Party after a long and bruising
primary campaign in which Obama clinched enough delegates to secure the
party nomination.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
