• Fails to Protect Workers’ Rights  (4-28-07)
• Unfair Trade Policies Cost American Jobs  (5-03-07)
• Fair Trade... Not Free Trade  (5-26-07)
• The Korea Free Trade Agreement  (6-09-07)

Call your Representative and Senators today urge them to OPPOSE the Korea Free Trade Agreement

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Fair Trade... Not Free Trade

The auto provisions in the Korea Free Trade Agreement would give Korea increased access to the U.S. market, without first getting any guarantees that Korea will dismantle its barriers that have kept the Korean market virtually closed to U.S.-built automotive products. As a result, this trade deal will simply exacerbate our already enormous auto trade deficit with Korea, and jeopardize tens of thousands of additional automotive jobs for American workers.

• Korea is the fifth largest producer and third largest exporter of vehicles in the world.

• In the past, Korea has used a variety of tariff and non-tariff barriers to keep its market virtually closed to U.S.-built automotive products. It has the most closed auto market in the world.

• In 1995 and 1998, the U.S. and Korea negotiated memoranda of understanding to address this automotive trade imbalance. Despite these agreements, Korea has continued to maintain various barriers to keep its market closed to U.S.-built automotive products. As a result, the 2006 U.S. auto trade deficit with Korea mushroomed to $11.6 billion.

• The one-sided nature of our automotive trade with Korea is demonstrated by the fact that in 2006 Korea exported 554,000 vehicles to the U.S. But the U.S. was only allowed to export 4,000 vehicles to Korea.

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Korea Free Trade Agreement

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Fails to Protect Workers’ Rights

The worker rights provisions in the Korea Free Trade Agreement simply continue the approach adopted by the Bush administration in past trade deals. That is, the agreement merely requires Korea to enforce its own laws dealing with worker rights and protections.

• The agreement does not require Korea to abide by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) set of core labor rights, including freedom of association and prohibitions against child and forced labor.

• The agreement does not prevent Korea from weakening its existing laws on worker rights and protections.

• The agreement does not provide parity of enforcement between labor and commercial provisions.

• The agreement does not meet the standards set forth in the proposal put forward by Representatives Rangel, Levin and others for dealing with worker rights in trade agreements.

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Unfair Trade Policies Cost American Jobs

At the beginning of March, a bi-partisan group of Members of Congress sent a proposal to President Bush for addressing the automotive trade imbalance between the U.S. and Korea. This proposal provided incentives to Korea to open its market to U.S.-built automotive products before it granted additional access to the U.S. market. It also contained a mechanism for dismantling Korea’s non-tariff marries, and protections against a surge in imports from Korea. Significantly, it stipulated that the U.S. tariff on imported pickup trucks should be left for resolution through multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations in order to address the likelihood that a tariff reduction for one country will lead to a shift in pickup production from Japan and Thailand.

• The trade deal negotiated by the Bush administration with Korea totally ignores the bi-partisan congressional auto proposal.

• The Korea trade deal immediately gives Korea greater access to the U.S. auto market. It would immediately eliminate all U.S. tariffs on most autos and auto parts imported from Korea. It also would phase out over ten years the U.S. tariff on imported pickup trucks.

• These provisions will trigger a surge in automotive imports from Korea to the U.S., thereby threatening tens of thousands of jobs for American auto workers. The Korean government has projected that their auto trade surplus with the U.S. will grow by $1 billion as a result of this trade deal. It also expects that the trade deal will result in Korean companies exporting pickup trucks to the U.S. Hyundai has already announced plans to study such exports.

• The Korea trade deal does not contain any guarantees that the U.S. will get substantially increased access to the Korean auto market. Instead, it simply has more toothless promises like those contained in the failed 1995 and 1998 agreements. It is likely that Korea will simply develop new non-tariff barriers in order to still keep its market closed to U.S.-built automotive products.

The UAW strongly opposes the Korean trade deal negotiated by the Bush administration. It would aggravate our already one-sided automotive trade imbalance with Korea. It would lead to a surge in Korean automotive imports, while U.S.-built automotive products would continue to be excluded from the Korean market. The net result is that U.S. automotive production and jobs would be threatened!

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The Korea Free Trade Agreement

Contrary to the rosy picture painted by the Bush administration, Korean workers routinely have their basic rights thwarted by the government and employers.

• The U.S. Department of State’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2005 identified numerous areas of worker rights violations in Korea.

• Hundreds of Korean union leaders and members are arrested and jailed each year for exercising fundamental worker rights, such as demonstrating and striking.

• The International Labor Organization (ILO) has found that Korea violates the right of workers to freedom of association, especially for public sector workers. Auto workers in Korea have also faced serious barriers to exercising the right to organize unions and bargain with employers without government interference.

• Korea has changed its labor laws to allow employers to expand their use of temporary, contract and other forms of non-traditional labor, in order to prevent workers from organizing and bargaining collectively. Such non-traditional workers now make up more than half of the workforce at many industrial firms. The president of the Korean Metal Workers’ Federation (KMWF) was arrested last year for his participation in a protest against this change in Korean labor laws.

• Korean trade unions oppose the U.S.-Korea trade deal.

For all these reasons, the UAW believes the worker rights provisions in the Korea trade deal are completely unacceptable. They will simply help to foster a race to the bottom that undermines the rights and standard of living of workers in both Korea and the U.S.

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Call Your Representative and Senators Today
Urge them to OPPOSE the
Korea Free Trade Agreement

Click here for links to your Representatives!