PITTSBURGH, July 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will get tough with governments that don't live up to trade deals, including those with substandard labor practices, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk was set to announce on Thursday.
The USTR and U.S. Labor and State departments will identify and investigate labor violations in countries with which it has free trade agreements and insist problems are fixed, instead of waiting for complaints to initiate enforcement, according to prepared remarks.
"If they won't fix their labor problems, we will exercise our legal options," Kirk was set to say in a speech at a U.S. Steel Corp plant.
"American workers should not be expected to compete against substandard labor practices," he said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Paul Simao)