1-19-07, 8:58 am
The Bush administration is pushing hard to complete negotiations on a trade deal with South Korea before its “fast-track” authority expires June 30. But thousands of Korean workers made it clear Monday that they will not accept a bad deal.
Fast track, also known as Trade Promotion Authority, was narrowly passed by the Republican Congress in 2002. The law allows the president to negotiate trade deals but prevents Congress from improving or rejecting harmful provisions by allowing only “yes” or “no” votes on such trade packages. Working families strongly opposed the 2002 legislation.
In massive demonstrations in Seoul, South Korea, where the latest round of talks are under way, workers protested their exclusion from the discussions and the lack of worker protections in yet another bad trade deal. Nine Korean lawmakers opposing the talks began a hunger strike in a tent pitched outside the headquarters hotel.
Known as KORUS, the pact with South Korea could be the largest U.S. trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect Jan. 1, 1994. The White House would have to submit a completed deal with Korea by March 31st to have it considered under fast track. With Democrats leading Congress, it is unclear whether fast track will be renewed in its current form.
In June, a unified U.S. and South Korean union movement signed a declaration opposing KORUS. The declaration says KORUS, like other trade agreements pushed by the Bush White House, fails to protect workers’ rights and the environment, while undermining governments’ ability to regulate public services and strongly protecting the investments and profits of multinational corporations. All major labor federations in both countries signed the declaration.
In July, 170,000 South Korean union members staged a general strike to protest the trade deal and other abuses of workers’ rights. The AFL-CIO and affiliated unions are pushing for all trade agreements to include enforceable provisions on international workers’ rights and environmental protections. The unions also want trade pacts to address other concerns with the current FTA model, including investment, government procurement, intellectual property rights, and service-sector liberalization. In September, workers from both countries protested at the last round of KORUS talks in Seattle.
Last November, the AFL-CIO Executive Council laid out a new approach that would make trade more fair and beneficial for all workers. The council statement calls for a three-step approach that would:
* Slow down Bush’s rush to negotiate new bilateral free trade agreements; * Review all current agreements; and * Reform the current trade regime so that we can renew our commitment to participating in a just global economy, one that works for working families and not just to boost the profits and power of multinational corporations.
In a recent press conference, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau conceded that “substantive adjustments” to the labor chapters of the recently negotiated free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia and Panama will need to be made to gain bipartisan support in Congress. The AFL-CIO will continue to press both Congress and the Bush administration to reopen these negotiations and address the full range of concerns raised by labor and our development, farm and environment allies.
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