(The AFL-CIO issued the following on April 28.)
The Bush administration’s decision to turn down the AFL-CIO’s 301 workers’ rights petition is an outrage and an insult to American and Chinese workers. It shows decisively that this Administration will only enforce U.S. trade laws when corporate profits and concerns are at stake, but will not go to bat to protect the fundamental human rights of workers. The “real results” of the Bush policy are a bilateral trade deficit of $124 billion and hundreds of thousands of lost U.S. jobs and failed businesses.
The AFL-CIO filed the 301 petition because the Chinese government’s systematic and brutal repression of workers’ rights is costing hundreds of thousands of jobs at home and distorting global labor markets. The AFL-CIO asked the USTR to impose trade remedies on China to offset the unfair and illegitimate cost advantage that comes from repression of workers’ rights.
President Bush is sending a clear message that he will not stand up for American workers. His Administration has used Section 301 to protect corporate intellectual property rights in the Ukraine, but he took a pass where American jobs and the rights of Chinese workers are at stake. By turning down the AFL-CIO petition, he has effectively ruled out any meaningful trade action, saying instead he will launch his own non-binding “investigation.” The Chinese government is unlikely to take this seriously, and neither will America’s workers.
President Bush proves himself to be, once again, the servant of his corporate donors. It is the multi-national corporations who benefit from the artificially low wages and repressed rights of Chinese workers. American workers and producers need a president who will stand up for American jobs and for international human rights.