Obama forgot to mention: His S. Korean trade deal cost the USA jobs

[brentspeak]

In an earlier State of the Union address, Obama pushed for the KORUS "free trade" deal, promising it would provide American jobs. This is what actually happened:

http://www.epi.org/publication/trade-pacts-korus-trans-pacific-partnership/

No Jobs from Trade Pacts: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Be Much Worse than the Over-Hyped Korea Deal

By Robert E. Scott | July 18, 2013

President Obama and his predecessors have frequently claimed that free trade agreements (FTAs) and other trade deals will lead to growing exports and domestic job creation. The president is currently negotiating two massive new FTAs that are likely to result in increased outsourcing and growing job losses, especially in the manufacturing sector. This paper reviews recent data on trade with South Korea after the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) took effect, and on trade flows after other free trade agreements. It concludes:

snip

When the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement was completed in 2010, President Obama said that it would increase U.S. goods exports by “$10 billion to $11 billion,” supporting “70,000 American jobs from increased goods exports alone” (The White House 2010).1 He based this claim on estimates from the U.S. International Trade Commission that tariff cuts alone in KORUS would stimulate U.S. exports to South Korea, supporting the president’s goals of doubling U.S. exports in five years, and adding 1 million new manufacturing jobs.

Things are not turning out the way the president predicted. KORUS took effect March 15, 2012. In the year after the agreement took effect (April 2012 to March 2013), U.S. domestic exports to South Korea (of goods made in the United States) fell $3.5 billion, compared with the same period in the previous year, a decline of 8.3 percent. In the same 12-month period, imports from South Korea (which the administration consistently declines to discuss) increased $2.3 billion, an increase of 4.0 percent, and the bilateral U.S. trade deficit with South Korea increased $5.8 billion, a whopping 39.8 percent. Estimates for 2013 suggest no reversal in these trends, as discussed later in this paper.

The administration is now negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that could include more than a dozen nations in the Asia-Pacific region (Office of the United States Trade Representative 2013d) including Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, and South Korea (Hyun, Yeon-cheol and Jeong-hun 2013).2 Recently, China said that it was studying the possibility of joining the TPP talks (Bankok Post 2013). Many members of the proposed agreement have long histories of currency manipulation (Scott 2013b), dumping, and other unfair trade practices that have dramatically increased U.S. trade deficits and job losses, and the agreement could sharply curtail the ability of the United States to challenge these practices.3 The TPP would significantly increase the threat that rapidly growing trade deficits and job losses in the United States would be locked in if the TPP is completed.

[djean111]

1. Didn't you get the memo? The new meme is that hey, don't you think workers in other

countries should have our jobs? You greedy people!

[Hoyt]

2. These organizations use a questionable method to calculate what the claim are "lost jobs"

They take the view that any trade deficit with a particular country were jobs that would have remained here had there been no trade agreement.

That is just not the case.

Folks who might have bought a Korean car or any other product (potentially contributing to the trade deficit) because of their availability due to the trade agreement, would likely have just bought a Japanese car, TV, radio, etc., if the Korean product were not available.

Plus, "trade" is not the only value of these agreements.

[brentspeak]

3. "Those organizations"? Which to you means those organizations that

don't consist of the Heritage Foundation or Cato?

[Hoyt]

4. No, I mean what I said, and I am not going to explain it to you.

I really don't think you have the capacity to understand.

[brentspeak]

5. Sure, instead of an actual sourced study, I prefer Heritage Fdn. talking points

made by anonymous internet posters who hide behind Woody Guthrie avatars.

[bvar22]

6. INstead of DECREASING the Balance of Trade,

The Korean Free Trade Treaty INCREASED the trade deficit.

The TPP will be a nightmare for people who Work for a Living.

[SamKnause]

7. He didn't forget.

He knows.

He knew NAFTA hurt this country.

He knows the TPP will hurt this country.

He is doing what he is paid to do by his corporate masters.

I hope he enjoys his money and connections after his term is up.