사회진보연대

 

[statement] Revoke the Korea-US FTA immediately!

Finalization of the Korea-US FTA heralds the destruction of common people's livelihoods.

On April 2, Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong and Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Karan Bhatia announced that agreement on the Korea-U.S. FTA had been reached. Although the U.S. negotiators were not satisfied with the deal by the original March 31 deadline and extended it until April 2, in the end, the FTA, which threatens the livelihoods of common people, was finalized.

While the negotiations were in their last stage the Roh Moo-hyun administration acted as if the deal was at the crossroads between breakdown and success and misleadingly portrayed itself as doing everything in its power to promote national interest. The evening after agreement was reached, President Roh continued this show with a self-congratulatory speech calling the FTA a great accomplishment and 'the best choice for the nation's future.' 

Even if Roh had made an apology, it could not have made up for the fact that, in reality, the FTA will gravely harm the environment, weaken public services, destroy the livelihoods of farmers and rollback workers rights. However, Roh's statement was far more sickening, filled with comments such as "opening the economy is the best choice to strengthen national competitive power and achieve restructuring," "people who are against the FTA have no logic or basis for their arguments," and "it is a shame that the healthcare and education markets will not be opened more." He went to great lengths to praise the FTA with these empty remarks without saying a single word about the devastating consequences it will have.

At the same moment as Roh was giving his self-congratulatory address, Heo Se-wook, a member of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, lay in a hospital bed critically wounded after having attempted suicide by self-immolation as an act of protest against the Korea-US FTA negotiations. Heo's cries of "down with he Korea-U.S. FTA" could be heard even as his body was engulfed in flames. The negotiations, which were carried out behind the high walls of the Hyatt Hotel, never included the voices of common people like the worker Heo Se-wook.

The real aim of Korean ruling class:

In the wake of the negotiations politicians and media outlets are now busily engaged in calculating the profits and losses in each area of the agreement. But, in fact, if we look carefully we can see who the agreement was really meant to benefit: transnational capital dominated by the United States.

 

The Korea-US FTA was never really about opening the markets of both countries; it has actually always been about opening only the Korean market: The U.S. market is not only already fairly open; even if it is opened further, Korean capital is not strong enough to really take advantage of it. Given this fact, the plan of the Roh administration and Korea's ruling class could never really have been about opening the U.S. market to expanded Korean exports.

On the other hand, the opening of the Korean market will lead to industrial restructuring and increased foreign direct investment. Do we really thing this will promote the growth of the Korean economy and the accumulation of wealth? The  Roh administration claims that the decline of 'backward' industries will be balanced by the growth of advanced ones; however, within the current structural crisis of capitalism, there is no guarantee that should we abandon agriculture or the services industry the manufacturing industry will grow. Instead, workers will be laid off due to industrial restructuring and will be unable to find new jobs. They will become victims of the FTA.

What is more, the majority of the investment resulting from the opening of the financial market will be speculative investment of the same order as 'Loan Star', which has gained roughly 4 billion dollars from buying the 'Korea Exchange Bank' at a giveaway price in 2003 and now taking advantage of high stock prices.

If we look at all of these facts, we can see that Roh Moo-hyun's 'strengthening national competitive power through opening the market' means nothing other than 'guaranteeing profits for transnational capital' and 'stabilizing the system of neoliberal financial globalization," which is based on deepening exploitation and oppression. This program will benefit the Korean capital that is already transnationalized, but it means the spread of poverty and the destruction of the rights of common people. This is why the Korean ruling class is desperate for the Korea-U.S. FTA, and why the people must stop it from being enacted.

Revoke the Korea-U.S. FTA! Destroy neoliberal globalization!

The Korea-U.S. FTA has not yet been signed into law. The Korean government will most likely treat the FTA as a foregone conclusion and simply wait around to sign the agreement in late June. President Roh probably thinks that ratification by the National Assembly is the only remaining hurdle, and only a formal procedure. But the people in this country won't let the FTA be concluded. Shouting, 'Revoke the Korea-U.S. FTA immediately', we will rise up against the FTA which guarantees the profits of transnational capital, and struggle for people's rights.

 

The question surrounding the FTA in not about the opening or closing of national markets, but a choice between capital-led globalization based on exploitation and oppression or an alternative globalization that assures people's rights. Let us dismantle 'neoliberal globalization' through our struggle to revoke the Korea-U.S FTA!

2007. 04. 03

PSSP (People's Solidarity for Social Progress)