ABOUT KAFT AND FTA
What is the KorUS FTA?
On February 2, 2006, the United States and South Korea announced their
decision to begin talks towards signing a bilateral Korea-U.S. Free
Trade Agreement (KorUS FTA). The U.S. is South Korea's largest trading
partner, and South Korea is the United States' seventh largest trading
partner. Together the two countries trade $72 billion dollars annually,
making the KorUS FTA the second largest trade deal after the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
As a precondition to even begin talks, South Korean president Roh
unilaterally conceded to change four national laws affecting public
health regulations and Korean culture and the arts: emission standards
on automobiles, lifting of partial ban on U.S. beef, price controls on
pharmaceuticals, and film screening quotas. President Roh held a public
hearing announcing their decision to begin the trade talks, but shut
the meeting down after 20 minutes because of fierce opposition by
people attending the hearing.
South Korean civic groups concerned about the possible consequences of
the FTA--outraged by the lack of democratic process and with no venue
to express their worries--created a unified coalition of 270
organizations from diverse sectors of civil society to oppose FTA
negotiations. Over 1 million South Koreans have protested the KorUS FTA
in the past year, refusing to be silenced by an agreement that would
violate 169 Korean laws. In response, the South Korean government
stepped up repression against farmer and labor leaders, banned all
protests against the FTA, issued warrants for the arrest of 85 farmer
and labor leaders, and deployed armed police and hired thugs to
forcibly enter local union offices, indiscrimately arrest union members
and supporters, and seal the offices shut.
The South Korean's government repression against labor and farmer
leaders is an authoritarian attempt to silence the vocal
representatives of over half of the South Korean population that stands
in opposition to the FTA. Meanwhile the FTA negotiations continue on a
fast track timeline, excluding the public opinion of vast sectors in
Korea and the concerns of U.S. workers and small farmers, and behind
closed doors in a deeply undemocratic manner. If the FTA passes after
such a profound lack of respect for democracy, it will have a
tremendously negative popular impact on a nation that has enjoyed a
liberal democracy for less than 20 years. To add injury to insult, the
downgrading of labor standards and workers' rights that the FTA
threatens to impose will make it all the more easier for the South
Korean government to engage in these types of intimidating and
oppressive actions in the future.
What is KAFT?
Korean Americans for Fair Trade (KAFT) is a national organization of concerned Korean-American citizens that calls for trade that promotes the equitable and sustainable development of working people and the environment.
KAFT was formed in 2006 due to concerns with the non-transparent negotiations process and dangerous provisions proposed in the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KorUS FTA). Our coalition works closely with peasants/farmers, trade unionists/labor, public health and other civil society organizations in the United States and South Korea.
KAFT promotes a fair trade model that supports the following principles:
- Mutual benefit, respect for democratic rights and progress towards equality;
- Democratic participation, transparency and accountability during the trade negotiations process;
- Strengthened labor and environmental standards;
- Protection of vulnerable populations.
We are not convinced that the KorUS FTA will be beneficial to ordinary American workers and farmers. In the United States, unfettered free trade has been directly responsible for the massive loss of jobs and erosion of hard-won benefits and rights for workers, unions, and the middle class. Nowhere has this been more apparent today than with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
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