Washington ? The Labor Department said Thursday it was seeking an exemption for General Motors’ new retiree health care plan that would carry out the automaker’s plans to transfer company securities into the health care trust.

The United Auto Workers’ retiree health care trust fund received a 17.5 percent ownership stake in the new GM as part of the company’s government-led efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection last summer.

The health care trust, which begins Dec. 31, will cover 700,000 GM retirees and dependents.

Detroit’s automakers negotiated with the UAW in 2007 to create the health care trusts to address huge labor cost disadvantages compared with Japanese auto manufacturers. GM had faced a projected $50 billion in future health care costs.