Jerry Dias, President of Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union which represents more than 39,000 workers in the auto manufacturing sector, said the Canada-South Korea free trade agreement poses a serious threat to this nation’s car industry.
“We cannot stand by a deal that secures a one-way flow of Korean auto imports into the Canadian market, undermining the jobs and industry on which so many Canadians depend, while precious little is done to strengthen our imports to Korea,” said Dias.
While there will be a three-year phased-in removal of Canadian auto tariffs on Korean vehicles and an immediate removal of Korean tariffs on Canadian exports, negotiators were unable to win similar protections to the ones the U.S. negotiated in its free trade agreement with South Korea.
The U.S. deal with South Korea included protections against import surges into the U.S. market and a ground-breaking “snap-back” provision which enables the U.S. government to return tariffs to pre-agreement levels if Korean non-tariff barriers limit U.S. exports. Even with these provisions, the U.S. has suffered a worsening auto trade deficit.
“The problem is that Prime Minister Harper did not address the current trade imbalance. We needed our political leadership to broker a deal that addressed the reality that we have 100,000 Korean-made cars being imported to our market, while we are exporting only 100 cars to the Korean market,” stressed Dias.
Canada sold $3.7 billion worth of goods to Korea in 2012, but imported $6.4 billion. Unifor research has said that 33,000 manufacturing jobs could be lost in a trade deal with South Korea.
“We expected our political leadership to stand up for the rights, jobs and economic security of Canadians — and they have failed to do that,” said Dias.
