ORFTC Comments Opposing the Korea Free Trade Agreement

Public Comments
August 26, 2009

Oregon Fair Trade Campaign Comments in Opposition to the Korea Free Trade Agreement
Re: Docket ID: USTR-2009-0020-0001

The Oregon Fair Trade Campaign (ORFTC) is a coalition of more than twenty-five labor, environmental and human rights organizations, which together represent nearly 200,000 people across the state of Oregon. We appreciate this opportunity to voice our opposition to the Korea Free Trade Agreement and to urge its renegotiation.

At a minimum, the FTA should be renegotiated in the following ways before moving forward:

  • Eliminate investor-to-state enforcement mechanisms
    The proposed Korea Free Trade Agreement maintains and expands CAFTA-type investment provisions that subject federal, state and municipal policies, including environmental, consumer safety, public health, financial and other public interest policies, to challenge by foreign corporations in international tribunals that completely circumvent the U.S. judicial system. Even U.S. court rulings can be challenged under the proposed pact.

    Going beyond previous FTAs, the Korea FTA also declares contract rights as property rights subject to extrajudicial investor-to-state challenges.

    In total, these provisions grant foreign investors with far greater rights than those enjoyed by U.S. citizens, and needlessly undermine our democratic sovereignty. These investor-to-state enforcement mechanisms should be eliminated.

  • Remove limitations on food and product safety
    The proposed FTA contains language requiring the United States to limit import inspections and to accept imported food that does not meet domestic safety standards. The same goes for imported toys and other consumer products. Provisions that place limitations on U.S. food and product safety standards should be eliminated.
  • Remove restrictions on public procurement policies
    The proposed FTA continues to place unnecessary restrictions on “Buy America” and “Buy Local” public procurement policies. The pact’s procurement provisions also potentially expose U.S. prevailing wage policies, as well as renewable energy, recycled content, anti-sweatshop and other “green” and socially-responsible procurement practices, to challenge. All these types of procurement policies should be explicitly protected from challenge in the FTA language.
  • Strengthen the labor standards
    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.
  • Guarantee access to generic medications
    The proposed Korea FTA does not do enough to protect the rights granted under the 2001 WTO Doha Declaration on Public Health, and as such, violates Congressional requirements contained in the 2002 Fast Track authority under which the FTA was negotiated.
    Specifically, the proposed FTA’s acceptance of “data exclusivity” for drug-test data must be eliminated.
  • Prevent double standards in agriculture
    Even with rice exempted, the proposed FTA repeats harmful agricultural provisions that will force poor, South Korean farmers to compete with subsidized agricultural exports from the United States.
    These provisions are likely to increase poverty in rural areas of South Korea and should be re-written to ensure that both Korean and American farmers are able to compete on a level playing field.
  • Prioritize global warming solutions
    The Korea FTA should be renegotiated to carve out broad exemptions in every area for policies designed to combat global warming.

It’s worth noting that President Obama flagged most of these issues as in need of reform while he was on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008. ORFTC suggests that the U.S. Trade Representative take a close look at the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act (HR.3012) — a bill with 116 cosponsors at present — as a way to move forward on these issues and meet the President’s promises of reform.

Finally, ORFTC is also greatly concerned by the anti-democratic practices adopted by the South Korean government in order to suppress dissent during the original FTA negotiations. Thomas P. Kim, executive director of the Korea Policy Institute, characterized the government’s behavior as “marked by a return to the authoritarian practices of past dictatorships.” These practices included:

  • The banning of public demonstrations opposing the FTA
  • The setting up of roadblocks to prevent potential protesters’ freedom of travel and assembly
  • The issuing of summons and warrants for over 170 social movement leaders opposed to the FTA
  • The raiding of civic group’s offices
  • The detention of leaders from 19 separate farmers’ and workers’ rights organizations
  • The blocking of television advertisements critical of the FTA

This is hardly indicative of the type of democratic processes the United States should be encouraging in international trade negotiations. ORFTC requests that prior to launching FTA renegotiations with South Korea, the Obama administration obtain promises by the South Korean government to respect the basic rights of its citizens during the negotiating and approval process.

Thank your for your attention. If you have any questions about this testimony, please contact Arthur Stamoulis, director of the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign, at (503) 736-9777 or orftc@citizenstrade.org