The Bush administration negotiates bilateral trade agreements with countries that either lack or fail to enforce workers’ rights laws. In accordance with the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the AFL-CIO supports reasonable wages and benefits as well as the right to unionize for all workers.

  Asia

China

The U.S. trade deficit with China is the largest in U.S. history with one country—$201 billion. That deficit has cost 410,000 U.S. jobs and job opportunities in the past two years alone, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The U.S. trade deficit is further increased by China’s manipulation of its currency, the yuan.

At the same time, China’s workers are denied basic workers’ rights. The AFL-CIO resubmitted a petition on workers’ rights in China to the Bush administration this year. Learn more and find out how you can help.

South Korea

• AFL-CIO Now blog: Workers Try to Keep Korea Deal off the Fast Track.
• Read AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee's testimony on KORUS.
• Read about a delegation from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union helping Korean unionists fight the Korea-U.S. Trade Agreement.

  Middle East

Like previous trade deals negotiated by the Bush administration, the Oman Free Trade Agreement is woefully inadequate when it comes to protecting workers’ rights. Labor laws in the country are nowhere near International Labor Organization standards. In Jordan, serious violations of workers' and human rights have been reported. 

• Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's letter calling for an investigation into Jordan's violations of workers' rights (PDF).
• The AFL-CIO and National Textile Association have filed the first worker rights case ever submitted under the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement. Download the complaint and an executive summary of the complaint.
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Oman Trade Deal Heads to House Vote.
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Senate Passes Oman Trade Pact—Another Bad Deal for Workers.
• Read a fact sheet on Oman's labor laws (PDF).
• Read a letter from the AFL-CIO and members of a coalition urging Congress to oppose the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (PDF).
• Read AFL-CIO Now blog posts on the Oman Free Trade Agreement.
• Oman agreement a bad deal for U.S. workers.
• In a June 2005 petition to remove Oman from favored nation trade status, the AFL-CIO cited several reports of abuse and exploitation of foreign workers—who make up the majority of Oman’s workforce. Read the petition (PDF).

  The Americas

Since losing the fight to consolidate the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the Bush administration has pursued bilateral trade deals with several Central and South American countries. None of these agreements have included protections for safe work conditions or for workers’ rights to form unions. 

• Colombia Free Trade Agreement
• Read the NAFTA at Year Twelve testimony submitted by Thea M. Lee, AFL-CIO policy director, to the Subcommittee on Trade of the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, in September 2006 (PDF).
• AFL-CIO Now blog: Bush Pushes ANOTHER Bad Trade Deal—This Time with Peru.
• Read AFL-CIO Policy Director Thea Lee's testimony on the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
• Read a joint declaration on CAFTA by AFL-CIO and Central American unions.
• Read AFL-CIO report Labor Rights and Child Labor in Central America (PDF).
• After CAFTA—AFTA?

• Links to Global Unions
• Stop Sweatshops

• From 1993 to 2004, the United States lost more than 1 million jobs due to the North American Free Trade Agreement. Find this and more in the AFL-CIO Facts & Stats database.

• Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s statements on Outsourcing America and Taking Action to Challenge Communist China’s Unfair Trade Practices, and find other related resolutions and council statements at the AFL-CIO Convention archive.

• Read the Economic Policy Institute report The High Price of "Free" Trade.
• Read AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney's speech on global poverty.
• Find more information on the global economy at the AFL-CIO archives.