Welcome to BASE21

End to investment treaties and free trade agreements! End to the sacrifice of economic autonomy and peoples' needs in exchange for profit of global capital! Solidarity to the global struggle against FTAA!

Week of Action Against Investment Treaties and Free Trade Agreements
- Korean People's Action Against Investment Treaties & WTO (KoPA)

Three years into the IMF restructuring program, and the Kim Dae-Jung's government which had bragged about the prospects of overcoming the economic crisis through neo-liberal policies has left only destitution for the Korean people. The largest ever lay-offs, brutal suppression of workers, plummeting unemployment rate, unstable jobs.....The reality of the so-called reform based on free market policies turned out to be sacrifice of workers and the Korean people for the benefit making the most attractive environment for transnational capital.
Some time ago, the representative of the US Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Jeffrey Jones, said through their annual report "Korea is opening its doors wide open towards the world and investors are showing their interest. Direct foreign investments and portfolio investments have increased enough to make big companies that can be said to represent Korea such as Samsung and POSCO, be recognized as foreign." Like he said, the market share of foreign companies in the Korean market is overwhelming in all areas from IT, heavy industry, chemical industry to paper, seeds and food. Also, foreign capital that have come into the Korean market is not interested in long-term investment but concentrates only on profit generating, short-term usage, heightening the possibility of another foreign exchange and financial crisis. A second crisis can hit Korea anytime. With this expansion of market control by transnational capital, it is now only a matter of time until the collapse of national industries to one massive subcontract basin. There is nothing else to expect from the Kim government but the increase of direct, indirect investment of foreign capital, instability of the Korean economy and dependency.
At the moment, the Kim government is in the midst of negotiations for investment treaties and free trade agreements to ensure free activity of transnational capital. The Korea-Chile Free Trade Agreement has only last minute negotiations until the agreement is signed, and the Korea-US, Korea-Japan Bilateral Investment Treaties are expected to be signed within this year. The progressive movement in Korea is fighting against the BIT and FTA which will demolish the very basic rights and democracy of the people, as NAFTA had done in North America and Mexico. We are all in the same fight against neo-liberal globalization.
It is well known that the Korea-US BIT seeks to abolish the screen quota which states that Korean movies must be shown for a certain amount of time in cinemas around Korea. Not only that, the most important elements of the BIT are the clauses on giving equal treatment to transnational capital and abolishing the limit to the amount of foreign shares allowed in state-owned corporations. Basic services that should be under state control are now the target of transnational profit gambling. During the negotiations for the Korea-Japan BIT, Japanese capital is emphasizing that active Korean trade unions deter free activity of companies and the Kim government responded by promising to intervene when there is a labour dispute. Put in simple words, this is a promise that the government will suppress any attempts to workers' solidarity and struggle against exploitation by international capitalists. The Korea-Chile FTA will completely destroy Korean agriculture which already started to crumble by the market liberalization of agricultural products enforced by the WTO Urugary Rounds. The FTA which states that all tariffs on 263 products will be abolished during the next ten years, will snatch away all methods of survival for Korean farmers.
The investment treaties and free trade agreements are nothing but the exchange of economic autonomy and peoples' lives for the profit game of transnational capital. We must now not only seek to manifest the problems of the BIT's and FTA's, but stand for the complete opposition.
On the other side of the world in the Americas, the Free Trade Area of the Americas(FTAA), a mere expansion of NAFTA which brought about the crash of the Mexican economy, collapse of Canadian industries and threw US workers into the street, is once again calling for activists all around the world to unite and struggle against neo-liberal globalization. The people of the world will once again come together as we had done in Seattle, Washington and Prague. We send our warmest solidarity to those who are struggling against the FTAA.
KoPA has been holding demonstrations everyday in front of the American Chamber of Commerce from 9th April. Culture, environment, women, and workers' groups spoke about how neo-liberal globalization has seaped through and destroyed all aspect of our lives. We brought together our different voices in the common call for the stop to all negotiations for investment treaties and free trade agreements. We continued our relay rally until the 20th, and at the same time, held conferences for in-depth debate on the problems of the BIT and FTA, the effect of globalization on the environment, women, health, education and other aspect of our lives. We also hosted a film festival to manifest the atrocities committed by transnational capital in various countries, and the struggles of the people. On the 21st, the final day of the week of action, around 100 people, including the laid-off contract workers of Korea Telecom, held a 'Global Day of Action' near the government complex, in resistance against the BIT and FTA, and also in solidarity with the struggles at Quebec.