McCain Calls for EU-US Trade Pact

Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain on Tuesday called for a EU-U.S. trade pact, saying exports were a bright spot in the U.S. economy.

"I will work together with our allies, our traditional allies, and we will come up with hemispheric trade agreements," he told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. "I'd love to see a U.S.-EU free trade agreement that we will share common values, common principles; we will work together as a community of nations."

The senator also said he was very worried about the softness of the U.S. dollar. "We all know when the dollar weakens the price of oil goes up," he said.

In order to alleviate rising energy costs in the United States, McCain called for greater investment and research and development.  (See the CNBC interview with McCain at left.)

"If we can get that battery that takes a car, an automobile 200 miles before you have to plug it in and then only for a couple hours, Americans would go for them," he said. "We need to...make those research and development tax credits permanent, not hold up the business community every year or two for more campaign contributions."

He also cited the importance of accelerating the process of building nuclear plants and turning to alternative energy.

"We have to develop wind, tide, solar, all of those and unleash the innovative spirit and entrepreneurship of America," he said. "We can become independent of foreign oil."

McCain also called for keeping taxes low and extending employment benefits.

"There's a lot of things that we're going to have to do to think outside the box, because we all know Americans are hurting badly and maybe hurting more badly than they've hurt in a real, long time," he said.

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