by James Parks, Nov 30, 2007

Yesterday’s agreement by the Chinese government to eliminate some of its export subsidies is an important accomplishment, but the Bush administration needs to show the same determination to address issues such as worker rights violations, import safety and currency manipulation, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says. 

Last February, the United States announced it would challenge China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over state subsidies of exports of steel, wood and information technology products, among other goods, as well as “import substitution” subsidies that encouraged Chinese companies to buy domestic products instead of imports. 

At a press conference yesterday, U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said, “Where China fails to live up to its WTO obligations, we will use the full array of tools available to secure compliance.”   

But as Sweeney notes:  

Unfortunately, to date, the Bush administration has declined to use most of the tools at its disposal to address the often blatant unfair trade practices of the Chinese government—and the result has been thousands of lost jobs and failed businesses.          

Well-documented and egregious abuses of workers’ rights in China are undeniably putting U.S. workers at an unfair disadvantage, yet the Bush administration has failed to take even minimal steps to address these concerns. Worker rights abuse has never been on the official agenda of the bilateral economic discussions.

Click here to read Sweeney’s full statement. 

Last year, the annual report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (a bipartisan, congressionally appointed commission) provided evidence that China has been seriously inconsistent in meeting its obligations as a member of the WTO. The report backs up conclusions in the AFL-CIO’s Bush administration report card on China and a Solidarity Center study on workers’ rights in China. 

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article | Comments (0)