Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have  attacked NAFTA in their bids for the Democratic presidential nomination, blaming the 14-year-old North American free trade deal for widespread job cuts in the U.S. manufacturing sector.

Federal officials and business leaders, including myself, have  dismissed the calls by the Democratic presidential candidates to renegotiate NAFTA, believing that free trade deals help American small businesses and the U.S. economy grow.

The Congressional Research Service has even released several studies looking at the economic effect of NAFTA.

Democratic demagoguery on NAFTA is misplaced. NAFTA is NOT to blame.

I believe NAFTA  has really been the most important piece of trade legislation in the history of the United States. Many federal officials and business leaders agree that NAFTA should be left intact.

Writer ANGUS LOTEN, of INC.com, did an articlerecently in the New York Times, with federal officials defending the trade pacts.