Labor & Employment Law

Trumka Praises Obama?s Refusal to Accept ?Inadequate? Korea Trade Deal

By James Parks

Workers in South Korea last year protested the proposed trade deal with the United States.

President Obama showed he is not willing to settle for an inadequate trade deal with Korea that ?doesn’t address the very real concerns of working people and small business,? AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said yesterday.

South Korea and the United States were unable to jump-start the long-stalled U.S.?Korea free trade agreement and will keep negotiating. South Korea was unwilling to address the non-tariff barriers that currently prevent American products?especially autos?from entering the South Korean market fairly. Obama has insisted that the agreement, which was negotiated during the Bush administration, should be more fair and balanced.

In a statement, Trumka said:

Given the precarious state of our economy, President Obama is exactly right in holding out for a deal that puts working people’s interests first. President Obama should keep fighting for a balanced and workable trade deal that will protect the interests of American and Korean workers.

Read Trumka?s statement here. 

The two sides have been holding negotiations to try and complete the deal before the G-20 summit this week in Seoul.

Last June, Trumka said the agreement, negotiated by the Bush administration, ?would exacerbate our already lopsided trade relationship with South Korea, putting at risk thousands of good U.S. jobs in the auto, steel and other industrial sectors.? 

The agreement phases out tariffs on goods and services traded between the two countries. But, as now proposed, the agreement does not go far enough in eliminating the non-tariff barriers that currently prevent American products?especially autos?from entering the South Korean market fairly, Trumka added in the June statement.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on November 12, 2010 (boomark / email).