PSPD in English Socio-Economic 2011-05-31   4204

Announcement Demanding Verification on S. Korea-EU FTA

[Press Conference]

Announcement Demanding Verification on S. Korea-EU
FTA

-Calling for the dismissal of the Minister of Trade Kim
Jong-hoon
-Expressing disapproval of hasty passage of FTA in the April
National Assembly session
-Urging an thorough investigation of related
standing committees under the National Assembly
rules

After the Korea-EU FTA ratification motion was
proposed to the National Assembly, it went through two instances of a
presidential demand for retraction and three times of Cabinet meetings. Finally,
the bill was resubmitted to the National Assembly on April 6th. This was because
the government poorly prepared a Korean version of the pact which has more than
two hundreds translation errors, and the National Assembly was not aware of any
of these errors.  That is a great shame.

Minister of
Trade Kim Jong-hoon is primarily responsible for this situation.

We are going to propose a resolution calling for the dismissal of
Minister Kim, who brought humiliation on the pact due to the mistranslation, in
addition to the humiliating renegotiation of the Korea-US FTA. We will push
forward with the resolution in the solidarity from all four opposition parties
in the April National Assembly session.  

The Korea-EU FTA calls for a
wide range of open market, and its effects on the Korean society are huge. For
this reason, we cannot let the National Assembly bypass verification and be tied
up with a too-hasty enactment on July 1st, a day which was chosen solely by the
Ministry for Trade. The National Assembly must take a closer look at the
bill.

We raise our strong objection against the
helter-skelter passage of the Korea-EU FTA during the April extra-session of the
National Assembly.

Korea-EU FTA has not only a minor
mistranslation problem; it cannot be passed without any thorough verification.
If the National Assembly abandon its duties and rights on the FTA issue, this
kind of abandonment is not admitted.

The lawmakers and the MPs of the
Korean civil society who stand here strongly believe that now is the time for us
to take a closer look at not only the format of the bill but also its contents.
We reaffirm that the National Assembly to approve or not to approve of this
treaty is the right and duty given by the Constitution toward Korean people.
Now, we announce the 50 points that the National Assembly should verify with the
Korean people. 

1. Economic Effects and the Necessity of Huge Economic Blocs under
the FTA

The government is exaggerating the
economic effects of the Korea-EU FTA based on uncertain statistics whose
credibility is even doubted by a national research agency. In particular, with
the exception of products of which current import tax falls under a 0 percent,
European products subject to tariff removal account for 86.7% of all products,
more than that of S. Korea. Still, the government insists on promoting the false
assertion that the treaty with the EU is favorable for Korea.

Korea has
an open economy, exporting a staggering 2 trillion won a day, highly dependent
on foreign trade with the foreign trade dependency of four times more than that
of Japan and four and half times more than that of the USA. However, under these
circumstances, voices calling for a thorough verification of the FTA are being
censured as isolationists, while the government is doing a poor job preparing
for the FTA and limiting the damage it will cause. Furthermore, it is obsessed
indiscriminately only with the fast effectuation of the pact while merely 7.6%
of exporting businesses have been prepared. All these factors led up to a
shameful scenario of poor preparation of the Korean version of the FTA and they
attempted to get it ratified three times.


2. Agriculture and Public Livelihood


The Korea-EU FTA includes an article which ignores the
distribution law and the SSM (Super Supermarket) law, which reached a dramatic
agreement by opposing parties with the purpose of protecting local economy and
ordinary people’s economic lives in Korea. If the agreement takes effect as it
is, it would obviously be a cause of dispute between the EU and Korea. However,
the government has neglected to carry out negotiations that might settle this
potential dispute.

The results of the negotiations on agriculture would
inevitably lead the rapid removal of tariffs on agricultural products and
dissolve minimal protection for agriculture. The FTA with the EU brings with it
the possibility of destroying our domestic livestock industry, which has already
been hit hard by foot-and-mouth disease. However, the government only insists on
rapid effectuation of the treaty rather than provides counter-measures. The
government did not report the results of agricultural negotiations including a
shocking amount of customs-free imported farm produce, safeguard measures on
frozen pork, a place-of-origin marking system on food and agricultural products,
an export ban on fishpaste and crab stick. Still, the National Assembly has not
had opportunities to examine them.

3. Safety and
Health

It is the duty of a country to protect environment
and people’s safety and health. However, the goal of the Korea-EU FTA is setting
non-tariff barrier and putting priorities to restrict tariff seemingly as they
think that is a government duty. It bans eco-friendly domestic products in
metropolitan community school cafeterias and forces to import European beef
which has been hardest hit by mad cow disease, proportionally to U.S. beef. We
do not have our own measures to verify whether imported meat is originated from
foot-and-mouth disease free areas, but must respect exporting countries’
decisions.

Moreover, the agreement includes an article which allows
European pharmaceutical companies to regularly intervene in computing the prices
of medicines. This will eventually cause an increase of medicine prices, since
it restricts using low-cost medicines under the excessive protection of patent
rights. Furthermore, safety certification of electrical devices, safety
standards for vehicles and vehicle emissions, and current bans on industries
which discharge waste water will be removed or lifted; those may harm people’s
health and safety.


4. Autocracy on Trade
and Harm to Constitutional Order
 
The government reported
the reduced number of domestic laws that need revisions to the National
Assembly. Much worse, it did not even report some issues which limit the
legislative power. The current administration disregarding the National Assembly
is trying to reinforce and structuralize an autocracy on trade through this FTA.
The Trade Commission led by the minister for trade as a co-chairman, has a full
control over every issue regarding the agreement, can bind the nation under its
decision, and can even revise some articles of the agreement. Furthermore, it
can manage every issue, which means it wields unlimited power and even has
authority to interpret the agreement. 

To check the autocracy, the
contents of the agreement should be fully reviewed. Even before, trade procedure
acts or treaty procedure acts are urgently needed for democratic control on
trade agreements.

5. First Announcement
of 56 Verification Points of the National Assembly

The
Korea-EU FTA includes articles which hinder the regulations of new financial
instruments and derivatives including those which caused financial crisis just a
few years ago. Moreover, they limit regulatory authority on national and public
services, incapacitate  ordinances by local governments, reduce public services
provided by the Post Office, and violate the oversight rights of the public
interests on infrastructure investment.

The agreement contains
unilateral barriers by the EU that the Korean government has not even properly
mentioned, antidumping barriers, customs refunds, EU’s unilateral safe-guard
act, and intellectual property articles which are wholly unfavorable for Korea;
the National Assembly and people should work together to examine the agreement.
The book we are distributing here has 56 points which we already checked in a
first round, which would be more.

6.
Discussion for Thorough Verification in Related Standing
Committees

On April 6, after proposing the mode of
ratification, the Speaker of the National Assembly sent the proposal to the
Foreign Affairs, Trade & Unification Committee as well as the other nine
related standing committees. That is a proper legal procedure according to the
National Assembly law under the first clause of Article 83.  

To review
the verification points, which were clarified here, we urge an immediate
discussion by the nine related standing committees. Furthermore, the
jurisdictional Foreign Affairs, Trade & Unification Committee should wait
until the other standing committees finish discussions, and finish its
assessment on the ratification mode with respect to the ideas of the nine
standing committees.

Without an overall review over the translation
errors and their contents, passing the Korea-EU FTA enforcedly is a deception of
the people, and shows disregard of the rights of the National Assembly.

We want to say that if the S. Korea-EU FTA were to be enforced hastily,
ignoring our minimum requirements, it will face widespread national
resistance.

April 11th 2011

Nationwide Movement
against KOR-US & KOR-EU FTA

Emergency Council of MPs for a Complete
Termination of KOR-US FTA

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