Canadian Auto Workers Say No to Korea-Canada Free Trade Agreement

Canadian autoworkers are now feeling what the US autoworker has been feeling for a long time:

Council learned that the federal government is fast-tracking a free trade agreement with South Korea, which it wants to have completed by mid-2006. This move is going ahead even though NAFTA has failed miserably to deliver on promises including effective dispute settlement. The government now wants to recreate NAFTA for Asia. While Korea is first, Japan and China are next.

CAW National Executive Board member Jim Woods urged action to put an end to “unfettered and one way trade.?Woods said free trade with Korea, Japan and China would decimate the auto parts industry in Canada. We certainly are at a crisis and at a cross roads in the auto parts industry,?said Woods, first vice-president of CAW Local 1524.

Here are some interesting statistics from the article:

There is already an imbalance in trade between Korea and Canada. Korea, for example, sold 130,000 vehicles in Canada in 2004. Canada sold 400 vehicles in Korea in 2004.

The ratio of Korean to Canadian auto sales is 268-to-1. Canada’s top export to Korea is wood pulp, while Korea’s top export to Canada is finished motor vehicles. Wood Pulp costs 25 cents per pound, while Korean vehicles cost $15,000 wholesale. It takes 60,000 pounds of wood pulp (requiring two acres of clear-cut forest) to pay for each vehicle we import from Korea.

I’m surprised Canada even sold 400 cars in the tightly controlled Korean car market.