U.S. trade goal

Jul 31, 2010 — The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Joe Napsha

Jul. 31, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- The Obama administration's tough stance on enforcing foreign trade agreements is protecting jobs a home, U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk told steelworkers Friday in Washington County.

The administration's efforts to expand markets for U.S. products has opened up opportunities, Kirk told more than 100 workers at Allegheny Technologies Inc.'s (NYSE:ATI) Washington plate-producing mill.

The administration's goal is to double the amount of U.S. exports in five years, and that would support 2 million jobs, Kirk said.

"We are expanding our enforcement playbook and executing every pattern in it to assert U.S. trading rights. It's a common-sense, win-win approach. Tough trade-law enforcement and smart trade expansion" will create jobs, Kirk said.

Kirk's visit to Western Pennsylvania was his second in a year. Last July, he told workers at U.S. Steel Corp.'s (NYSE:XSS) (NYSE:X) Edgar Thomson plant in Braddock that trade-law enforcement would be a top priority.

Reaction from trade experts was mixed.

The National Association of Manufacturers believes the administration's enforcement efforts "have been pretty good," said Frank Vargo, the trade group's expert in international economic affairs. "There's no question they are enforcing the (trade) agreements."

Where the administration has dropped the ball, Vargo said, is in getting trade barriers lowered because organized labor does not want the possibility of losing jobs to overseas competition. "Only 40 percent of our exports are covered by these bilateral (trade) agreements," Vargo said, which results in lost opportunities for trade.

But the U.S. Business and Industry Council said the Obama administration has failed to deliver when it comes to protecting U.S. jobs and enforcing trade agreements, following the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush, with only a slight deviation.

"There's no push to limit or reduce the imports to the U.S. If we could simply limit the growth of U.S. imports, we would be gaining hundreds of billions of dollars of orders for our homegrown manufacturers," said Alan Tonelson, a research fellow for the council, a national business organization comprised mostly of manufacturers.

"We are willing to stand up to anybody," Kirk said, deflecting criticism that Washington won't push China on enforcement of trade agreements. "We are insisting that American workers and businesses get to compete in a system of rules that applies equally to all," he added.

Kirk announced the filing of a complaint against Guatemala for allegedly violating workers' labor rights. Kirk said it is the first labor law case the United States has brought against a trade partner. The AFL-CIO was joined by six Guatemalan unions in filing a labor complaint in April 2008, Kirk said.

The complaint, filed under the Dominican Republic-Central America-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, claims that Guatemala is not enforcing its own labor laws regarding workers' rights to bargain collectively through a union and their right to acceptable work conditions.

Allegheny Technologies CEO L. Patrick Hassey said that his specialty metals company wants free and fair trade. In the quarter ended June 30, Hassey said, 35 percent of his company's sales came from overseas.

"As long as we have a level playing field, American manufacturers can compete and sell products. We can compete against companies, we can't compete against countries," Hassey said.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0288-47489194