Research Briefing

Today’s Pro-Trade Rhetoric Can’t Hide Obama’s Alliance With Union Bosses To Pursue Job-Killing Anti-Trade Agenda

“Obama Is Expected To Focus On Trade During A Speech Thursday At The U.S. Export-Import Bank’s 2010 Annual Conference …” (Meena Thiruvengadam And Henry J. Pulizzi, “Mexico Tops List of Trade Issues Facing White House,” The Wall Street Journal, 3/10/10)

TODAY’S TRADE PITCH FROM OBAMA JUST MORE WHITE HOUSE P.R. ON JOBS …

In State Of The Union Address, Obama Pledged To “Double Our Exports Over The Next Five Years, An Increase That Will Support Two Million Jobs In America.” (President Obama, State Of The Union Address, Washington, DC, 1/27/10)

In September, Obama Said Trade Agreements “Absolutely Essential To Our Economic Future.” “And make no mistake, this administration is committed to pursuing expanded trade and new trade agreements.  It is absolutely essential to our economic future.  And each time that we have met -- at the G20 and the G8 -- we have reaffirmed the need to fight against protectionism.” (President Obama, Remarks At Federal Hall, 9/14/09)

And Obama’s Trade Representative Said “In 2010, American Exports Will Be Critical To The Creation And Support Of New American Jobs.” (Ron Kirk, “The President’s 2010 Trade Policy Agenda,” United States Trade Representative, 2010)

BECAUSE OBAMA HAS DECIDED TO LISTEN TO ANTI-TRADE UNION BOSSES …

Labor Unions Have Adamantly Opposed Recent Trade Agreements. “Several unions have drawn a bright line on trade for the Obama administration. The Teamsters, United Steelworkers and Communications Workers of America are among the groups saying they will fight to defeat free trade deals with Panama, Colombia and South Korea if they are brought to Congress… Several large unions, including the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union (SEIU), also oppose the three deals…” (Ian Swanson, “Unions Say No To Trade,” The Hill, 9/23/09)

Washington Post Editorial Board: “Obama’s Broader Trade Policy Seem Pretty Close To That Of Organized Labor.” (Editorial, "All Talk On Trade," The Washington Post, 9/17/09)

Obama’s Trade Representative Says White House Going “To Bat” For Labor Unions In Trade Negotiations. “U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk pledged the Obama administration will go ‘to bat for American workers’ through greater protection of labor rights and more aggressive monitoring of overseas trade barriers … Unions led the push to get stiffer labor provisions added to free-trade accords …” (Mark Drajem, "Obama ‘Going To Bat’ For Unions In Trade Accords," Bloomberg, 7/16/09)

Obama “More Aligned With Labor’s Trade Agenda” Than “Any Other Administration In Decades.” “While labor’s opposition to free trade is nothing new, the movement’s having an ear in the White House is. The Obama administration says it supports free trade, yet it has so far seemed more aligned with labor’s trade agenda than has any other administration in decades.” (Steven Greenhouse, “Free Trade Confronts Union Barrier,” The International Herald Tribune, 9/24/09)

BY IGNORING IMPORTANT TRADE AGREEMENTS, KILLING AMERICAN JOBS …

Obama’s Refusal To Push Trade Agreements “Undercuts” Pledge To Create Jobs. “Mr. Obama has been willing to wait on asking Congress to approve pending trade deals … But it also undercuts Mr. Obama’s top priority: reducing the nation’s 9.7 percent unemployment rate. And as a result, even some fellow Democrats believe that Mr. Obama is leaving new jobs on the table.” (John Harwood, “Obama’s Balancing Act On U.S. Trade Policies,” The New York Times, 2/8/10)

Obama’s Anti-Trade Policy Is “Major Threat To American Competitiveness.” “U.S. trade policy, or the lack thereof, is the other major threat to American economic competitiveness in Asia… The most significant trade action of his administration so far has been to slap a tariff on Chinese tire imports, as requested by the steelworkers union. A U.S.-South Korea free-trade agreement negotiated by the Bush administration has gone unratified for more than two years.” (Editorial, “Deal With It,” The Washington Post, 11/13/09)

Washington Post Editorial: “A Failure To Pass The Colombia And Korea Agreements Would Be Bad News For American Companies And American Workers.” (Editorial, “Time To Trade,” The Washington Post, 2/8/10)

AND PURSUING OTHER JOB-KILLING ANTI-TRADE POLICIES

In September, Obama Started Trade War With China Announcing Tariff On Tires. “In one of his first major decisions on trade policy, President Obama opted Friday to impose a tariff on tires from China, a move that fulfills his campaign promise to ‘crack down’ on imports that unfairly undermine American workers but risks angering the nation’s second-largest trading partner.” (Peter Whoriskey and Anne Kornblut, “U.S. To Impose Tariff On Tires From China,” The Washington Post, 9/12/09)

• Starting A “String Of Ominously Protectionist Policies” In Obama Administration’s Approach To Trade. “The tire decision needs to be set into the context of a string of ominously protectionist policies which started within weeks of the inauguration with a nasty set of ‘Buy America’ provisions for public-works contract ... Besides these sins of commission sit the sins of omission: the president has done nothing at all to advance the three free-trade packages that are pending in Congress, with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, three solid American allies who deserve much better.” (“Economic Vandalism,” The Economist, 9/17/09)
  
  
• Obama’s Tire Tariff Described As “Bad Economics, Bad Diplomacy And Hurts America.” "A protectionist move that is bad politics, bad economics, bad diplomacy and hurts America… [T]he president’s decision to slap a 35% tariff on imported Chinese tyres [sic] looks like a colossal blunder, confirming his critics’ worst fears about the president’s inability to stand up to his party’s special interests and stick to the centre ground he promised to occupy in office." ("Economic Vandalism," The Economist, 9/17/09)

In January, Obama Escalated Trade War With China Buy Slapping Duties On Electric Blankets Manufactured In China. “The United States has set preliminary anti-dumping duties ranging from 90 to nearly 175 percent on about $30 million worth of electric blankets from China, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Wednesday.” (“US Slaps Duties On Electric Blankets From China,” Reuters, 1/27/10)

And Obama’s Renewed his Plan To Increase Taxes On Income Earned Overseas By U.S. Companies Would Hurt U.S. Competitiveness Abroad.  “President Obama’s recently released budget reemphasizes the administration’s goal to curtail tax deferral for income earned abroad by American businesses, but a new Tax Foundation study argues that this would harm U.S. competitiveness in low-tax countries. … ‘Eliminating deferral under our current worldwide system of taxation would immediately subject all foreign earnings of American multinational companies to the high federal corporate tax rate and reduce competitiveness abroad,’ Carroll said.” (Tax Foundation, “Eliminating Tax Deferral Would Make U.S. Less Competitive Internationally,” Press Release, 2/19/10)