SKorea trade pact could mean thousands of US jobs

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/04/AR2010120400921.html

By JULIE PACE and KEN THOMAS
The Associated Press
Saturday, December 4, 2010; 7:08 AM

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is looking abroad to create thousands of jobs at home, with a newly forged trade agreement with South Korea - the largest since NAFTA 16 years ago - that could mean a big boost for the U.S. auto industry.

The White House says the pact could put as many as 70,000 Americans to work, welcome news on a day when unemployment figures showed nearly stagnant job growth. Exports of U.S. goods to South Korea could soar to $10 billion, drawing the approval of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as some Republicans. snip

South Korea is agreeing to allow the U.S. to lift a 2.5 percent tariff on Korean cars in five years, instead of cutting the tariff immediately. The agreement also allows each U.S. automaker to export 25,000 cars to South Korea as long as they meet U.S. federal safety standards and allows the U.S. to continue a 25 percent tariff on trucks for eight years and then phase it out by the 10th year. South Korea would be required to eliminate its 10 percent tariff on U.S. trucks immediately.

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I know a lot of people don't think a strong union US auto industry effects them. But it does. Those are the taxpayers who used to pay into SS and Medicare to keep them solvent and paid for our government workers with their withheld taxes. Decades ago when our property taxes would increase it was no problem because the union autoworkers would negotiate a new contract to increase their hourly pay to cover those increase. And when our wages increased we set the pattern for all workers to receive an increase. This is not the case any more.

Too many imported cars now. And the guys who work in the factories that build those imported cars are not paying anything to support our retirement programs or to pay our government workers. They pay into funds that support their own retirement programs and pay for their own government employees.

And as for those workers who used to work in our factories? Well instead of those workers paying in to support our programs and pay for our government workers they are now needing government assistance because there are no jobs for them to support their families with.

So let your conscience be your guide when buying that next car. Your own job could very well depend on that choice.

Don

[KharmaTrain]

1. Very Interesting, Don...

Firstly, not all "imported" cars are made overseas. Our Honda probably has more American-made parts and was built in a factory in Ohio than my neighbor's GM truck that came from Mexico.

This article brings to mind a long running discussion about the ultimate effects of globalization and how it will affect other countries...especially in Asia. It showed how initially these economies were cheap labor and over time, as their standards of living rose, those economies became more service oriented and the labor was no longer cheap. State subsidies assist their corporations but in the end those people pay in higher taxes for the government to provide services that corporations do here (healthcare). The point was in time the cheap labor will vanish and globalization will mean countries will have to have a more balanced economy and decide if its the government or the "private" market that assures the best interests of the working class.

Hope it's not snowing too bad your way...

Cheers...

[NNN0LHI]

2. Snowing like hell

Problem is the people who purchase cars built by non-union workers are undermining everyone's union. Might even be undermining your own fellow union workers if you belong to one? Because lot of union guys like myself won't support businesses or their workers at places where the employee parking lot looks like a Toyota used car lot. I personally replaced my insurance agent who I had for decades over his choice of an imported car a year or so ago.

Honda was using prison labor in Ohio for a while undercutting our union workers. The non-union workers at Honda couldn't do anything to prevent that. If they complained they were fired. It took the UAW to expose and put a stop to that. And I am pretty sure you or no one else would want to be competing against prison labor who are getting paid 20 or 30 cents an hour on your own job.

I understand your confusion on that imported GM truck but its really not all that complicated as you make it sound.

One of my cars has a sticker on the windshield that says, "Built by UAW workers at the St. Louis Mo. Ford Assembly Plant", and the other one has a sticker on it that reads "Built by UAW workers at the Atlanta Georgia Ford Assembly Plant", so its really not as hard to buy union vehicles built here in America as you might think. Its spelled out pretty clearly if you just take a minute to look.

Soon as that snow stops I am going to grab the shovel and get to work here.

Take care and see you later.

Don

[KharmaTrain]

3. My Father Used To Only Buy Cars From The Ford South Works...

A very pro-union man through and through...even if it mean driving cars that were a headache. LOL.

The nexxus of the problem is communications, something I feel the union movement has done a poor job of over the years. It's constantly been forced to justify its existence than to show how it benefits the individual and the nation.

If this country needed a strong union movement it's now.

Still coming down here but looks like we've missed the worst of it. Still a couple inches on the drive I'll have to deal with...later...much later. LOL.

[NNN0LHI]

5. My late father was probably the most anti-union person I have known

He had a third-grade education but he wasn't stupid. Being a government employee(mail man), with a third grade education, even he still was able to understand and appreciate the fact that some day it was going to be those American union workers who he was going to rely on to pay for his pension and medical care after here retired. He knew what side his bread was buttered on so he always bought union for the self preservation aspect. Problem we are having is many people don't understand or care what side their bread is buttered on any more.

No amount of communications can change stupid.

Just shoveled that snow and it was wet and heavy! So when you go out take it easy. I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. Be careful out there. Don't want to lose you.

Don

Edit: And if the current generation of government employees thinks they are going to shift that tax burden from our former union factory workers to property taxes and tax my wife and I out of our house to make their Toyota payments they are about to receive a rude awakening.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. I live in Detroit, I am all for a strong auto industry BUT......

these trade deals never work out for us. NAFTA was sold with the same promises, it is all B.S..


South Koreans don't have the standard of living that Americans do. They don't get paid as much and don't have the buying power that Americans do.

This inequity in buying power causes inequity in the benefits of "free trade" deals.

The correct response to this situation is to add a 2.5% tariff to automobiles imported to America from South Korea. This would slow the race to the bottom in labor costs that is slowly killing the American middle class. It also makes American made vehicles more competitive with the imports.

Lastly it adds income to our government to help deal with our debt issue.

Not only should this trade deal not be ratified but all other similar deals should be renegotiated to remove the inequity that now exists.

The one unexpected consequence of these deals, that nobody is willing to talk about, is that these nations that we have deals with end up trading with each other. The workers there don't have the buying power to support American wages but they do have the buying power to support the wages in other similar nations.

Let's face it, most South Korean workers are not going to spend the money on a Cadillac when they can buy a Toyota. They just don't make have the buying power.

[Romulox]

6. Another giant sell out of working people from the man from Wall Street. nt