Prof. Gordon Lafer: Obama's NAFTA-style Korea trade treaty would cost U.S. jobs [View All]

[brentspeak]

http://www.registerguard.com/web/opinion/25935778-47/jobs-trade-treaty-korea-nafta.html.csp

While most Oregonians have all their energy focused on keeping their families economically secure, few may be aware that President Obama, congressional Republicans and the nation’s biggest corporate lobbies are teaming up on something that will undermine middle-class job prospects for years to come: another North American Free Trade Agreement-style treaty, this time with Korea.

snip

We’ve seen almost 5 million jobs leave the country since NAFTA was passed — many of them well-paying manufacturing jobs that were the backbone of the middle class. If we continue on our current path of NAFTA-style agreements, competition will slowly but inevitably bring America down to the level of our lower-wage trading partners. No amount of cleverness and no high-tech “jobs of tomorrow” can replace the millions of middle-class jobs that keep disappearing from our economy. On the contrary, it’s become increasingly common for even higher-wage professional and technical work to be outsourced to lower-wage labor abroad.

President Obama claims that the Korea agreement will create 70,000 new jobs by boosting American exports. This is true. But what he doesn’t say is that, according to the administration’s own study, the number of jobs lost to foreign imports will be even greater. When you need to hide or manipulate numbers to make your case, it’s not the sign of a sound policy.

snip

There is really only one reason for elected officials to support these treaties: to curry favor with big-money corporate donors. While the American people are against more NAFTAs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the nation’s biggest corporations are salivating at the prospect of yet more opportunities to hire ever-lower-paid workers. The Chamber of Commerce is the largest lobby in the United States, and when senators look to where they will raise money for their next election, they inevitably turn first and foremost to wealthy individuals and big business.

snip

Gordon Lafer is an associate professor at the University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center. In 2009-10 he served as senior labor policy adviser for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and Labor.