Protesters urge Pelosi to vote ‘no’ on KORUS FTA

By Elliot Owen
Contributing Writer

Demonstrators  gathered in front of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco  residence Jan. 29 to protest her support of the Korean-U.S. Free Trade  Agreement, which if passed would represent the United States’ most  significant free trade agreement since NAFTA was implemented in 1994.

The  agreement, called KORUS FTA for short, is scheduled for congressional  debate in the coming months. It seeks to promote the increased trade of  goods and services between South Korea and the U.S. by significantly  decreasing or eliminating tariffs on about 95 percent of consumer and  industrial goods within three years of implementation.

Tom  Lacey, chair of the Peace and Freedom Party, emphasized Nancy Pelosi’s  history of supporting agreements like the KORUS FTA at the Jan. 29  rally.

“Most of us remember that Nancy was known as ‘NAFTA Nancy’ when she voted in favor of NAFTA the first time around,” he said.

President  Barack Obama expressed support for the agreement in his 2011 State of  the Union Address, saying it would support 70,000 American jobs as part  of a plan to double U.S. exports by 2014.

And  the U.S. International Trade Commission reported the reductions made on  tariffs would add $10-12 billion to the annual U.S. gross domestic  product and about $10 billion to yearly merchandise exports to Korea.

John  Brinkley, Communications Director at the Korean Embassy located in  Washington D.C., said the KORUS FTA would increase American investment  in South Korea in virtually every sector, especially financial services.

“[KORUS] is a very fair agreement,” Brinkley said, stressing that mutually beneficial business interests are being secured.

The protesters at the Jan. 29 demonstration did not share these sentiments.

“This  is a job killing bill. It’s awful for workers,” Director of the  California Free Trade Coalition Tim Robinson said. “Over 400,000 jobs in  the sectors most vulnerable to job loss due to this agreement are in  California.”

Additionally,  according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit Washington D.C.  think tank, the KORUS FTA will cost Americans 159,000 jobs over the  next seven years.

During  the most recent renegotiation of the KORUS FTA held in Dec. 2010, South  Korea acquired preferential access to American pork and pharmaceutical  markets, while the U.S. secured that up to 25,000 more American  automobiles will have access to the Korean market.

The  International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural  Implement Workers of America have publicly approved the agreement while  other large unions such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress  of Industrial Organization and the United Steelworkers have opposed it.

Steven  Zeltzer, chair of the United Public Workers for Action, expressed  concern over what he called the deregulatory and pro-privatization  nature of the KORUS FTA.

“[KORUS]  will be good for multinational companies to flood Korea,” he said.  “This agreement is being pushed by the multinationals who are going to  benefit from it.”

Zeltzer  also said the KORUS FTA could lead to the eventual privatization of the  Korean health care system whereby Korean hospitals would be forced to  buy high priced drugs from Pfizer and other pharmaceutical multinational  corporations.

Protesters  argued the KORUS FTA combined with the anti-unionization atmosphere in  South Korea would lead to the further repression of the Korean working  class, where it is currently illegal to unionize without government  consent.

The  KORUS FTA was originally drafted and signed in 2007 under the Bush  administration but has never been ratified due to ongoing  renegotiations.

Pending its approval, the agreement could go into effect by late 2011.