This fact sheet was created and distributed by the Korean American for Fair Trade on May 2011, i.e., before the U.S. Congress approved the Korea-US FTA mid-October.
THE FACTS
#1 The Korea-US FTA is a Bush legacy that pre-dates the financial crisis and contains many provisions
that would further deregulate finance and banking at a time when we are still trying to build a
sustainable, transparent and just economy. Why is Obama trying to pass a Bushera
agreement
that further deregulates our economy?
#2 The Korea-US FTA’s dispute resolution clause allows investors in both countries to sue the other
country’s government and courts for laws and rulings that impede their maximum profit. We saw this
under NAFTA, when the state of California was sued by a Canadian transnational for banning a
chemical deadly to humans and the environment. We cannot privilege investors over our
democratic systems and our lives.
#3 Because the FTA was signed under FastTrack
authority, Congress can only vote Yes or NO
on the FTA once it is introduced, and once passed, this FTA cannot be repealed. Unlike other
bills, Congress cannot change the actual features of the trade deal. Meanwhile, corporate interests
have been lobbying hard and spending millions to pass this deal quickly, without a larger debate
among the American public or in the media. This is an undemocratic process where your voice must
be heard.
#4 While Obama argues that an increase in exports will lead to job growth, we only need look at
NAFTA and the industries that benefit from the FTA to see that exports may not lead to jobs. We will
be losing even more quality manufacturing jobs and replacing them, if at all, with low.wage service
jobs. Independent think tank Economic Policy Institute estimated that the US would lose
approximately 159,000 jobs through the Korea FTA, while 55,000 jobs would be lost through
the Colombia-US
FTA.
#5 Worker rights and job security will be threatened in both countries. This is due to the Korea-US
FTA’s ‘rule of origin’ provision, which allows up to 65% of the foreign materials in US or Korean goods
to be exempt from tariffs and encourages the off.shoring of jobs. This means that American goods
made elsewhere, such as in Mexican maquiladoras (factories in special economic zones intended to
draw investors with lower taxes and fewer worker protections ), and Korean goods made in China would be largely tariff.free. and benefit the transnational corporations that are already profiting
greatly from cheap labor. We cannot afford to further undermine worker protections and rights.
#6 The FTA has been used to dismantle Korea’s environmental and public health laws, and in turn,
threatens America’s future environmental policy. Through negotiations, Korea agreed to a side deal
which overturned its 2000 law that kept genetically modified organisms (GMOs) out of Korea’s
food supply. By 2008, Korea had approved 102 GMOs for import as feed or food, 70 percent from the
U.S. firms Monsanto, Dupont and Dow Chemical. The Korean government also agreed to lower
national emissions standards to accommodate the import of less fuel.efficient and more polluting
U.S. vehicles. This would mean more greenhouse gases leading to global warming, more air pollution
and related public health problems. The FTA also make the passage of future environmental
conventions related to international trade more difficult because both countries would have to agree
to them.
#7 The KoreaUS
FTA would devastate Korea’s farms and farmers and threaten Korea’s food
security, while further filling the pockets of large US agribusinessesas American family
farmers continue to be squeezed. Korea has only 4.2 million acres of farmland, compared with the
US’s 434 million. The average farm size in Korea is 1.2 acres, compared with the U.S.’s 71 acres. If the
FTA is implemented, it will force roughly half of Korean farmers off their land. In the US, the National
Family Farm Coalition opposes the deal because only large U.S. agribusiness corporations will benefit.
#8 If passed, the FTA would severely cripple or even dismantle Korea’s public healthcare
system, and undermine the US’s chances of ever achieving universal health care or negotiating
governmentset
price controls. It overturns Korea’s existing public.health laws, opens the door for
U.S. pharmaceutical companies even further into Korea’s markets, and it extends patents up to 75
years, making it difficult for generic medications to reach the market and making it easier for U.S.
pharmaceutical companies to sue generic drug manufacturers, even after a patent expires.
#9 The FTA undercuts the democratic process in both countries. The FTA violates 169 Korean
laws. To silence the opposition, the Lee administration in Korea has turned to authoritarian practices
reminiscent of past dictatorships. It has used violent police force against peaceful gatherings
protesting the FTA, banned public assembly against the FTA, and issued arrest warrants for more
than 170 civil society leaders who organized against the trade deal. The Lee government has also
blocked anti-FTA advertising from airing on TV while running its own pro-FTA commercials.
