AFL-CIO and USW Announce Opposition to Revised KORUS

The AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers (USW) have each issued statements in opposition of the recently revised U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS). AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka stated that he welcomes the efforts by the Obama administration to address the concerns of autoworkers and auto companies with respect to market access, safeguard provisions and some non-tariff barriers. However, the labor movement's concerns about the FTA go beyond the auto assembly sector to a more fundamental question about what a fairer and more balanced trade policy should look like. In particular, the labor movement has consistently and for many years argued that the investment and government procurement provisions in the Korea FTA will encourage offshoring.

The USW Executive Board states that the agreement will result in increased access to the U.S. market for Korean producers with insufficient assurance that the closed South Korean market will sufficiently open up to U.S. auto exports and other manufactured goods, such as steel. In addition, provisions were not included in the FTA to reduce the flood of products that could be shipped from China and other countries to Korea to be assembled into South Korean exports that will benefit from the terms of the FTA. The lack of strong rule of origin provisions as well as duty drawback will directly and adversely impact USW members in a number of industrial sectors. The delays in tariff phase-outs will only defer, not reverse, the negative consequences of the proposed FTA.

The AFL-CIO statement is available here. The USW statement is available here.