CAW says Korean free trade would kill 33,000 Canadian jobs

[MBC]

Korean trade deal would kill 33,000 Canadian jobs: CAW
Chris Vander Doelen, CanWest News Service; Windsor Star

WINDSOR, Ont. - Canada would suffer a net loss of up to 33,000 manufacturing jobs if it agrees to free trade with South Korea, the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) Union said Tuesday as it stepped up its campaign against dropping trade barriers with the Asian manufacturing giant.

That includes 4,000 automotive jobs the union estimates Canada would lose under free trade with South Korea. According to a CAW report released Tuesday, Canadians employed in industries diverse as computers, electronics, mining, plastics, rubber and clothing would take a hit if Canada opens its doors to Korean imports.

The report suggests that around 4000 Canadian auto worker jobs would be lost under the free trade agreement.

As part of the annual lobbying effort the union stages on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, senior CAW officials took the report with them to meetings with the automotive and trade caucuses of the four major parties.

The report, written by CAW economist Jim Stanford, says their sector-by-sector analysis of the potential job gains and losses in Canada following free trade with Korea "give little reason to expect any significant economic benefit."

An influx of duty-free Korean imports would "displace jobs" in every region of the country, but mostly in Ontario, where 17,418 jobs would disappear, and Quebec, where 8,366 would be lost.

"Who in Canada (other than the federal government) actually wants this deal?" Stanford says. "Most sectors of our economy have far more to lose from a free-trade deal with Korea than they have to gain."

Jeff Watson, MP for Essex, one of several dozen MPs who met with the CAW lobbyists to hear about the report, said the Conservative government is on the record in not wanting a one-way trade deal.

"The minister (of trade, Jim Prentice) said today the deal has to have substantial benefit to Canada before it will be signed," Watson said. "Right now, we don't have a deal of any kind."

Watson said he also wants to hear other analysts weigh in on the debate before he believes the "hysterics" of the CAW's campaign against Korea and its curious timing.

Exploratory trade talks with Korea started in 2004 under the Liberal government, Watson said, but there were no complaints about the talks from the CAW until the government changed. The union campaigned for the former Liberal government in the last election.

The report on the Korean trade deal was the second from the CAW on international trade in as many weeks. On Thanksgiving Day, Stanford issued another analysis entitled "Canada's Collapsing Automotive Trade Performance."

Automotive analyst Dennis DesRosiers said the CAW analysis on Korean trade is "very misleading" because it blames Korean automakers for a change in Canada's automotive trade surplus, which was actually due to slowing economic conditions in the U.S.

Windsor Star

cvanderdoelen@thestar.canwest.com
_________________
New! On Your Mind & Music Industry sections.

Embassy Entertainment Group
www.myspace.com/embassyentertainment

[On tha low Brotha]

First off,let me say this, the C.A.W needs to go,we would have had nissan,honda,and toyota opening up shop in windsor,but because that lil bully ken lewenza wants to try and keep his spot,windsor has lost out on...ohhhh lets say 10,000 plus jobs.

If it wasn't for the C.A.W our city wouldn't be rotating in a clock wise motion swirling with shit as we get flushed down the toilet,and lose out on attracting more better paying jobs to windsor.

Our brain less mayor eddie francais,or how ever it's spelled,needs to get his head out of the sand,and start working the phones,and do what ever it takes to get these other car companies to come and break ground here in windsor,the day of the C.A.W is long gone,it was over once they let that other dude bob white take the canadian workers,and start the C.A.W when these same workers were holding it down with the U.A.W.

Start with the automotive sector,and then build up the entertainment sector to help being more shine to windsor,and help with what we have here in our streets.

The bottom line is this,we here in canada need to stop depending on the automotive sector,and realize that the time is now to keep it moving and look somewhere else to where the money is,and if that means leaving canada....Then so be it!!!.