PSPD in English Socio-Economic 2011-05-31   4975

Government and GNP should Stop Railroading Ratification of KOR-EU FTA Immediately

[Press
Conference]

Government and GNP should Stop Railroading Ratification of KOR-EU
FTA Immediately
DP should Fulfill Pledge
“Block
KOR-EU FTA Ratification without Outright Verification” of Four
Opposition Parties Consented around April 27 By-election
KOR-EU FTA is renegotiable.

Do
it
immediately.

On May 2nd, The GNP(Grand National Party) and the DP(Democratic Party)
leadership and the government agreed with a so-called “16-people’s convention”
to bring KOR-EU FTA ratification to the plenary session of the National
Assembly. We strongly censure the two leaderships’ haste attempt to pass the
agreement in order to meet the schedule suggested by EU; which lacks both
overall verification on the poison pills of KOR-EU FTA and the discussions on
proper countermeasure and massive damage to small businesses, farmers and many
industrial laborers.

We condemn closed-door collusion on the hasty ratification of the
KOR-EU FTA done by the government and the two leaderships of the GNP and the
DP.

The compensation plan for small businesses and farmers roughly agreed by the
leaderships of the GNP and DP is nothing but a fool’s gold, which has been made
hastily to meet the tour schedule of President Lee Myung-bak.

The leaderships of two parties are insisting that the KOR-EU FTA ratification
should be made since compensations for small businesses such as “law for win-win
of large corporations and medium-small businesses” and “law for development of
distribution industry” have been properly backed up. The laws would be
emasculated under the KOR-EU FTA agreement. To avoid this, we urge to
renegotiate or at least notify the EU that the practical effect on related
domestic legislations will be limited before the ratification. Other measures
have no practical effect. Any agreement made by the government and the National
Assembly has validity on the international level unless the FTA agreement
changes.

As both laws would be emasculated from the moment the agreement is ratified,
opening renegotiation with the EU and reinforcing protection of small businesses
is not different from arguing that they should leave a curable patient to die
and then attempt to revive him/her.

The compensation of eco-friendly free meals which will be ineffective as the
protection on small businesses is also completely missing.

Compensation measures of agriculture have no practical effect, either.
Three-year exemption of transfer tax on stock farmers is left out from the
agreement. A direct payment for farm income compensation has already received an
unfavorable evaluation with the implementation of the KOR-Chile FTA. Also,
zero-tax-rate on assorted feed and farming equipment is a system already in
effect, but it has never been suggested as a countermeasure in the KOR-EU FTA. A
one-trillion won subsidy has been announced to support FTA implementation, but
it is not only unwelcomed since it is a loan, but also a plan which will
eventually burden farmers with serious debts. We can help doubting how these
plans could save six million small businesses and 3.2 million farmers from
damage.

More than two hundred discordances between the Korean and the English version
of the KOR-EU FTA agreement have been discovered, which made three-times
reversal of the ratification of the agreement in the National Assembly to lose
its authority and trust. Neither the verification nor the proper countermeasures
has been made yet. The government, the GNP and the DP should immediately stop
railroading the verification of a tattered KOR-EU FTA.


The KOR-EU FTA is renegotiable. Do it immediately.

The leaderships of GNP and DP argue that a renegotiation is assumingly
unfeasible, while insisting they would open a discussion for revision after the
ratification. They must not make fools of the people. Why do they not open a
renegotiation now if they actually have an intention to protect small
businesses, farmers and major public policies?

In the last negotiations of the KOR-US FTA, Kim Jong-hoon, minister of trade,
argued that a renegotiation is absolutely unfeasible, which eventually ended
with a renegotiation done by the government in last December. The renegotiation
of the KOR-EU FTA is not unfeasible. The National Assembly should first organize
a verification committee of nine standing committees and experts in the CSOs,
and then thoroughly verify the agreement at large. The government should
renegotiate with EU based on the verification.


The Act on negotiation procedures should be enacted before KOR-EU
FTA agreement is passed in the plenary session.

The government has made trade contracts on its own without any prevention;
and negative consequences came up in the form of hundreds of translation errors.
The government again did not report the contents of the agreement to the
National Assembly and the people faithfully during neither the contracting
procedure nor afterwards. The government has reported different from the facts
and propagandized groundlessly. The government was not willing to mediate
conflicts among the related members of the society and even neglected
communications with government departments and local governments. To check the
arbitrariness of the government in a democratic way, law on trading process
should be enacted. Without the law, it would be even harder to check negotiation
autocracy of the negotiation headquarters after the agreement has takes effect.
As we could see the conflicts in the process of enacting law for win-win of
large corporations and medium-small businesses and law for development of
distribution industry, enacting the Act on negotiation procedures is urgent to
empower the National Assembly to mediate conflicts caused by the FTA
afterwards.


The DP should fulfill the political agreements for the victory of
the April 27 by-election.

On April 13, the four major opposition parties of the Democratic Party, the
Democratic Labor Party, the New Progressive Party and the Participation Party
announced a political agreement to win the by-election on April 27. On the
agreement, they consented on “blocking the ratification of KOR-EU FTA without an
outright verification”, “implementing a thorough verification on poisonous
articles of KOR-US and KOR-EU FTA”, “preventing violation on the rights of
legislation and jurisdiction caused by KOR-US and KOR-EU FTA, and enacting the
Act on negotiation procedures.” Based on these agreements, the four opposition
parties could lead the April 27 by-election to a win.

However, the leadership of Democratic Party made an agreement with the GNP
for an ineffective plan right after the by-election; and is trying to pass the
ratification bill at the plenary session. This is not only an obvious abrogation
of policy coalition and the bond of opposition parties which had been made in
front of the people but also a betrayal of political faith. If the
representatives of the Democratic Party respect the promises with the people and
the partners of political coalition, they should reject the agreement which the
leadership has contracted unilaterally in the general meeting and then stop the
ratification at the plenary session of the National Assembly.

The agreement made by the leadership of the DP stands against the stable life
and welfare of people, clashing right with the interest of ordinary people; it
is an undemocratic collusion full of deception on the people. If the MPs of the
Democratic Party wield their leadership to pass the agreement, that will be a
serious treachery to the spirit of the participation and solidarity of people.
They should know that they cannot avoid being judged by the people.

May 4th, 2011

Nationwide Movement against KOR-US & KOR-EU FTA
Emergency Council
of MPs for a Complete Termination of KOR-US FTA
The Federation of Korean
Distributors
Korea Coalition of Agricultural Workers

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