Obama to visit GM plant to tout trade deal

President Obama will travel to Detroit this week to talk up a trade deal that a major union for automakers has become one of just a few labor groups to support.

The White House said Monday that Obama would visit the General Motors Orion Assembly Friday to give a speech about a trade deal with South Korea, one of three pacts the administration has been pushing Congress to approve. The United Auto Workers union said this week it would support the deal, which administration officials argue would increase U.S. exports by about $10 billion.

{mosads}Obama will tour the GM plant with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, and the pair will “give remarks on the trade agreement with South Korea that will open up economic opportunities and support jobs on both sides of the Pacific,” the White House said Monday.

The White House has also asked Congress to approve long-sought trade deals with Colombia and Panama.

Obama has argued the deals would be good for U.S. automakers.

“The reason I want to get these trade deals done is because you see a whole bunch of Korean cars here in the United States and you don’t see any American cars in Korea,” he said in a news conference this summer.