international relations - 'Free trade' issue enters US elections

Senator John Edwards (photo) has put today free trade as an issue on the political agenda during a speech at Columbia University in New York. Edwards is the number two in the ongoing Democratic struggle for the candidancy of the 2004 presidential elections after John Kerry, who has won most of the US states up to now.
"There is no question that our current trade policies are good for the profits of multinational corporations,'' he said. "They are good for some people in the financial sector here in New York City - not all, but some,'' Edwards said according to AP. That is a direct challenge for Kerry, who has supported and underwritten free trade and the free-trade agreements. Those agreements have cause white collar jobs to leave for China and other low-wage countries, the articles says.
Kerry won earlier on the support of the largest confederation of trade unions the AFL/CIO and Edwards seems under pressure to win some of those votes back. Only ten percent of the US workers belongs to a trade union.
US presidential candidates, including Clinton, tend to turn nasty on China to win votes back home, during election campaigns.

Update: Please note the discussion on outsourcing and free trade developing here.