Bill Clinton: Blame Activist Investors, Not NAFTA For Companies Fleeing To Mexico

Former President Bill Clinton said on Tuesday that activist investors are partially to blame when companies flee the United States for Mexico. Speaking to CNBC during the Clinton Global Initiative's annual meeting in New York City, the former president said that activist investors "demand a profit in a year and a day" while management teams are "paid by that." Clinton added that NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, is not to blame. Clinton approved NAFTA when he served as President. "That's not NAFTA," he continued. "That's not running a stakeholder society. We need to go from a shareholder or at least a top shareholder to a stakeholder society as we once were. We need the incentives to do that and if we do that, we'll make better decisions." Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump has criticized NAFTA and a major theme of his campaign has been a call to revisit and renegotiate the free trade agreement. Trump has gone as far as to suggest that NAFTA proved to be "the worst trade deal in history" and Clinton is at fault for endorsing it. Clinton may have took jabs at Trump and suggested that if trade deals are enforced properly "they can be positive" for America and American workers.