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jessical commented on the blog post Korea Free Trade, Here We Come
The following is from http://www.citizen.org/documents/g20-korea-obama-comparison-memo.pdf and might help with the obscurity in my reference to the ILO:
“The Bush administration inserted language into the Korea FTA explicitly forbidding reference to the International Labor Organization conventions, which set forth the core international labor standards. Bush’s Korea FTA text requires countries to ensure workers the rights of collective bargaining, freedom of association and freedom from employment discrimination, but includes a footnote that says the obligations “refer only to the ILO Declaration” rather than the ILO Conventions.3 The ILO Declaration is a two-page general statement of the ILO’s principles; it has little meaning unless read in the context of the actual Conventions and their jurisprudence. This footnote must be eliminated to meet Obama’s commitments on the necessary labor components of trade agreements.
Labor rights violations are widespread in Korea, so eliminating the footnote is not an academic exercise. For example, the Korean government has used its “obstruction of business” law to imprison labor leaders, and employers often use police to break up labor union activity.4″Citations:
3. See Article 9.2 of the Labor Chapter of the Korea FTA, Available at:
http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/uploads/agreements/fta/korus/asset_upload_file934_12718.pdf4. ILO Committee on Freedom of Association Report No. 353, Case 1865 ¶ 729 (2009), and Young-Joon Ahn, “Ssangyong Motor union agrees to end strike,” Associated Press, August 8, 2009, Available at:
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Ssangyong+Motor+union+agrees+to+end+strike-a01611957511 -
jessical commented on the blog post Korea Free Trade, Here We Come
I don’t know how many more U.S. cars would be sold in Korea with tweaks, but I’m betting it’d be more if we could export more than 1 car for every 52 Korean cars imported here. It’s hard for our manufacturers to compete against so many non-tariff trade barriers the Koreans have thrown up.
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commented on the blog post Korea Free Trade, Here We Come
A big reason that South Koreans won’t buy our cars is the variety of techniques they use to keep our cars out of the market or out of reach of everyday Koreans. For example, they slap exorbitantly high luxury taxes on our cars and change the required size of license plates every so often (without advance notice) which costs our manufacturers an arm and a leg to keep up with compliance.
Another labor related issue important to organized labor and other rights groups is the fact that the labor provisions in the proposed FTA are based on the International Labor Organization’s (ILO’s) two-page Declaration on labor rights, rather than on the longer, more-concrete ILO Conventions supported by President Obama. This lack of specificity leaves the question of labor rights open to interpretation, something already proving a problem in implementation of the earlier Peru FTA. The proposed Korea FTA’s labor provisions should be strengthened to be based on the ILO Conventions.
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commented on the blog post Korea Free Trade, Here We Come
The U.S.-Korea FTA is actually the biggest trade agreement since NAFTA – not exactly small potatoes. Food sovereignty is an important point, thanks for bringing it into the discussion. It’s also important to note that the agreement includes provisions which would allow Korean companies or Chinese, European, etc companies with subsidiaries in Korea to challenge our laws – like food safety – in international tribunals at taxpayer expense. See my piece in today’s MinnPost for more info: http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2010/11/11/23281/us-s_korea_fta_threatens_jobs_and_state_sovereignty
