US Labor Organization Backs EU-US Trade Deal

After standing far apart on some trade issues, the US and Europe are getting closer to a Trade agreement. The key to the whole deal surprisingly might lay in Korea as both have recently signed trade agreements with the asian nation.

Tyson Barker, director of Transatlantic Relations at the Washington office of Germany’s Bertelsmann foundation, says that the agricultural issues are particularly sensitive in France.

“This will not be smooth sailing in Europe, by any stretch of the imagination,” he says.

The negotiations do appear to have the backing of both U.S. big business and big labor.

Labor unions have opposed previous U.S. free trade deals with developing countries, arguing that U.S. workers would be at a competitive disadvantage because inferior environmental and labor standards in those countries allow for lower wages. But the giant U.S. labor umbrella organization, the AFL-CIO, says it wouldn’t have those concerns in a deal with the EU, because it says that European social welfare and environmental standards exceed those in the U.S.

“The AFL-CIO believes that increasing trade ties with the EU could be beneficial for both American and European workers,” the union said in statement about the working group studying a potential deal.

via Mainichi

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