The U.S. trade deficit with S. Korea tripled in April to $1.777 billion over the previous month. Then in May it rose again to $2 billion.
Johnston explains why the cleverly named "Free Trade Agreement" (really another corporate giveaway) will hurt U.S. autoworkers:
...based on previous major trade deals, the details of this one and a host of Korean business and cultural barriers — I think a much more likely scenario is the destruction of more than 150,000 American jobs over the next few years...
Last year, American-made cars sold in the thousands, a fraction of one percent of car sales in South Korea. In June the best-selling American model was the Ford Explorer, with just 109 sold, less than a tenth of one percent of vehicles sold that month.
In the United States, sales of Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp, which are owned by the same company, grew 26 percent last year and accounted for every 11th new car sold...And he points out that the opening of S. Korean auto plants in the U.S. may not be such a great deal after all:
The opening of Hyundai and Kia assembly plants in the United States may seem like a benefit to the U.S. economy. But taxpayers covered much of the cost. And the value-added work in cars comes less from assembly than from making precision high-strength steel parts, especially in the drive train. To the extent that parts are made in South Korea and shipped to the United States for assembly, the added economic value tends to remain overseas.We hope he's wrong. But it's what we've been saying all along...
