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February 15, 2011
Letter from KAFT to
US Congress on Korea-U.S. FTA
Contact: Alexandra Suh (213) 210-5586
Dear Representative:
Korean Americans for Fair Trade (KAFT) is a national network
of organizations and individuals founded in 2006 to unite Korean American
voices for equitable and sustainable trade. We stand deeply opposed to the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS
FTA) and we urge you to vote NO on the proposed agreement if it comes to a vote.
This deal will take away American and Korean jobs, and threatens vital
financial, environmental, labor, and public safety protections in both
countries. We see it as an affront to democratic process and national
sovereignty of both countries, and are concerned that this FTA has the
potential to damage diplomatic relations between two historical allies, the
U.S. and South Korea.
KAFT members and supporters live, work, vote, and
participate in civic arenas throughout the United States, including New York,
New Jersey, Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay/Oakland/San Jose Area, Chicago,
Washington D.C., Seattle, Minneapolis, and Honolulu. We know first hand that
Korean-American business owners, homeowners, workers, and students are being
hit hard by the current economic crisis. Shops are closing in our communities.
Hard-working people are being let go from their jobs and working longer hours
with less pay. Dreams of keeping or owning homes are fading. Korea-U.S. FTA proponents argue that this
agreement will help everyone, but the fact is that it does not address the
increasingly difficult needs of our families. This deal, crafted in the
period before the current crisis, means that elected officials in both
countries will be prevented from instituting the necessary financial controls
that would protect our communities from the financial products that
precipitated the crisis in the first place.
As Korean Americans, we know first hand the destructive
impact of an unregulated corporate sector and financial crisis. In the late
1990s, many of our community members immigrated to the U.S. because of the
Asian financial crisis that ravaged South Korea’s economy. At that time,
Koreans not only lost jobs and savings, they also lost significant labor
protections while quality of life and work prospects saw drastic declines. Even
as Korea’s overall economy eventually improved, the lives of ordinary Koreans
did not. Korean Americans experiencing the current recession know that profits
on Wall Street do not mean more jobs, higher wages, or a better quality of
life, and we know full well that when governments cannot rein in the worst
excesses of corporate behavior, it is ordinary people who bear the brunt.
The Korea-U.S. FTA’s investor-state dispute resolution
clause is of especially deep concern to us. As introduced in NAFTA, it gives
corporations the entitlement to sue Korean and U.S. local, state, and federal
governments in private tribunals over public policy standards that they believe
will interfere with their ability to make profits. This clause elevates the
interests of a narrow group of multinational corporations over the public
interest in both countries, and dismantles the work that went into passing
critical labor laws, public safety codes, environmental protections, and other
legislation that safeguard the basic human rights of ordinary Americans and
Koreans.. Though we often hear about what the U.S. or Korea wins or loses in
the FTA deal, we consider such a clause a grave threat to both Koreans and
Americans, a danger to our extended families in Korea and to our own families
and communities here in the U.S. We do
not want corporations—of any nation—to be able to strike down our
anti-discrimination policies, labor rights, environmental protections, and
public health and safety laws.
We are also deeply disheartened that the Korean government,
in a bid to gain FTA ratification, has returned to authoritarian practices
reminiscent of past dictatorships rather than embodying the 21st-century
democracy that Korea can be. In recent years, over one million Koreans and over
270 civic organizations protested against the FTA, as it violates 169 South
Korean laws. The Lee Administration has used violent police force against
peaceful assemblies, arbitrarily banned public assembly against the FTA, and
issued summons and warrants for more than 170 civil society leaders who
organized against the FTA. The Lee government has blocked anti-FTA advertising
from appearing on television while airing pro-FTA government commercials. South
Korea's National Human Rights Commission has suggested that the government's
tactics are inconsistent with the South Korean Constitution. Meanwhile a recent
Pew Research Center poll shows that most Americans do not support the KORUS
FTA, and a letter signed by over 500 U.S. organizations was sent to Congress in
September 2010 to convey this fact. We
need a trade deal supported by the people of Korea and the U.S.
FTA proponents claim without evidence that its passage will
build amity between historical allies, but it is just as likely that it will
fuel anti-Americanism in South Korea. During the Bush administration,
anti-Americanism rose in response to U.S. foreign policies and aspects of this
trade deal, with hundreds of thousands gathered in candlelight vigils in the
streets in the capital over the passage of many months. Should Korea’s economic
conditions worsen in the aftermath of the passage of the FTA, Korean
politicians will make the linkage between their economic plight and the FTA. In
addition, Koreans are politically sensitive to perceived unequal treatment from
the U.S. The investor-state dispute resolution clause was deleted from the
Australia-U.S. FTA. That it remains in the KORUS-FTA will be seen as evidence
that South Korea is not treated equally to other U.S. allies.
We have the opportunity to end the toxic NAFTA trade model
and put into place a fair trade model that benefits not just a narrow sector of
transnational corporations, but the American and Korean peoples and our
economies as a whole. At a time when we need sustainable growth and jobs, moving
forward with an agreement negotiated in the heyday of deregulation, and before
the onset of our economic crisis, is unwise and dangerous. As Korean-Americans,
we urge you once again to vote NO on the Korea-U.S. FTA.
Sincerely,
Kei Fischer Sukjong
Hong Alexandra Suh
KAFT National Steering Committee
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