shocker: Korean-U.S. FTA after 2 years: A failure.

[cali]

The United Steelworkers (USW) joined members of Congress and private sector experts on Wednesday in declaring that the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA) has “fallen far short of job promises and improvements in trade balances,” following Saturday’s second anniversary of the trade law.

“Government data, congressional voices, and economic studies confirm that the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement has failed us,” USW President Leo Gerard said. “It has failed to produce good jobs and the evidence on exports is clear. Our export growth rate in the past 20-out-of -21 months is below the average monthly level seen before the FTA was signed.

“What’s astounding is the monthly imports from Korea are up 4 percent and the monthly U.S. trade deficit with Korea has ballooned 45 percent when compared to the pre-FTA level,” Gerard said. “The damage from KORUS and other free trade deals have been shown by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) to have caused the loss of tens-of-thousands of good-paying U.S. manufacturing jobs.”

“The U.S.-South Korea trade deficit has reached a historic high of $20.67 billion this year, which is a $7.4 billion (56 percent) increase from 2011--the year before KORUS took effect,” the USW said. “And the government numbers continue to get worse in each of the following years with U.S. exports down $1.8 billion since 2011 and $700 million since 2012.”

“These trade imbalances cost us more lost jobs,” Gerard said. “This unsustainable trade imbalance is undermining the economic well-being of American workers. If law-makers in Washington spent as much time worrying about our country’s trade deficit as they did the government’s budget deficit, our country would have more family-supportive jobs and a better trade policy.”

“Trade data for the first year of the FTA document exports of manufactured metal products to Korea fell 8 percent,” the USW said. “Exported manufactured wood, paper, and petroleum products have all fallen 3 percent. Thousands of USW members are employed in the sectors of steel, aluminum, copper, paper and petroleum products.”

The trade data also shows that the U.S. overall trade deficit with the 11 countries currently participating in negotiations of the flawed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is $154 billion. If TPP has the same negative and growing impact as KORUS, American job losses and the effect of trade imbalances will multiply.

Meanwhile, U.S. vehicle exports to Korea totaled 14,819 units in 2011 and increased to 27,553 units in 2013, the USW said. But Korea’s exports to the United States grew from 587,328 to 752,675 units over the same period. “The entire annual increase in U.S. vehicle exports to Korea are dwarfed by less than one-month of the increase alone in Korea’s exports.”

“The failures of the Korea FTA show why future trade deals need to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers; include strong rules of origin; develop enforceable labor and environmental standards; and stop our country’s focus on negotiating enhanced protections for corporations at the expense of workers’ rights,” Gerard said. “And, these provisions need to be backed up by strong implementation and enforcement provisions to guarantee results.”

http://www.chestertontribune.com/Business/usw_us_south_korea_trade_pact_a.htm

[Union Scribe]

1. Oh, I'm sure they'll fix it later like they did NAFTA.

Oh, wait.

I don't even know what to say anymore. Anyone who still buys these FTAs is either crooked or stupid.

[amandabeech]

2. Then just about everyone in our government, including our President,

is one, the other, or both.

Or maybe they're insane. They keep signing these things thinking that the results will be different.

I'd just love to dump the whole lot of them.

And I mean trade agreements and the folks who negotiate and vote yes on them.

[jsr]

3. Any Day Now. In a galaxy far, far away.

[Historic NY]

4. So. Korea is allowed to flood our car market with few regulations or tariffs...

while US manufacturers are handcuffed. The US gave up over 200 million in tariffs for what to sell a few more cars.

http://www.ustr.gov/uskoreaFTA/autos

[Hoyt]

5. Interesting -- This report says "Korea Free Trade Ament Shows Strong Results on Second Anniversary"

"U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement Shows Strong Results on Second Anniversary

"In the two years that this landmark agreement has been in effect, Korea has become the sixth-largest trading partner of the United States, exports of U.S. manufactured goods to Korea have increased, Koreans are buying more U.S. services than ever, and U.S. exports of a wide range of agricultural products have seen significant gains. KORUS has also improved Korea’s investment environment through strong provisions on intellectual property rights, services, and investment, supporting U.S. exports.

“Since the Korea agreement went into effect, U.S. exports to Korea are up for our manufactured goods, including autos, exports are up for a wide range of our agricultural products, and exports are up for our services. Millions are benefitting from the lower tariffs on U.S. exports as well as the progress being made to tackle non-tariff barriers blocking U.S. exports to Korea. While our trade balance has been affected by decreases in corn and fossil fuel exports, these changes are due to the U.S. drought in 2012 and change in Korea’s energy mix, both of which were unrelated to the agreement,” said Ambassador Froman. “Looking ahead, the United States will be working to ensure the full implementation of the agreement so that U.S. exporters are able to realize even more opportunities.”

". . . . . . Made-in-America manufactured goods still grew their sales in Korea by 3 percent, to $35.4 billion."


http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/press-office/press-releases/2014/March/US-Korea-Free-Trade-Agreement-Shows-Strong-Results-on-Second-Anniversary