FTA negotiations
Korea Herald
Editorial
FTA negotiations
7 July 2006
Given the constitutional right to freedom of expression, there is nothing wrong with critics voicing opposition to a free trade agreement being negotiated with the United States. Actually, many of them get their anti-FTA message across by contributing articles to news media, appearing on public forums or exploiting other legitimate channels to their advantage.
But it will not be very sensible if an alliance of some 300 groups is successful in their attempt to mobilize as many as 100,000 people to protest against the second round of negotiations opening in Seoul on Monday. The planned gathering in the Seoul City Hall plaza will further hamper the oft-clogged traffic flow in the area and cause other inconvenience.
More worrisome is the possibility of the protest getting out of control and demonstrators resorting to violence, as has often been the case when it comes to a mass protest rally. The organizers, as well as individual demonstrators, will have to be held strictly accountable for any use of violence.
In addition to the protest, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an anti-FTA group, is organizing a general strike to obstruct the negotiations. But unions acting at the KCTU’s beck and call will be accused of also pushing their own political agenda, and not promoting the interests of their members with legitimate demands for an improvement in their working conditions or an increase in their pay.
The KCTU says, with no justification, that it is trying to protect jobs in the nation by forestalling a free trade agreement, claiming that the proposed accord will "turn Korea into a paradise for speculative funds and make it impossible to create quality jobs." But it must be made to realize that its own militancy is driving domestic businesses to move their production lines abroad along with the jobs, and discouraging foreign companies from investing in the country.
Korea needs to upgrade its industrial base if it is to survive intensifying competition from China and other low-cost countries, retain existing jobs and create new ones. Chung Sye-kyun, minister of commerce, industry and energy, is right to say that few things will provide a greater momentum for improving the nation’s industrial structure than a free trade agreement with the United States.
The Korean government will have to drive this point home to the public, crack down on the use of violence at the planned protest rally and take harsh action against leaders of the unions participating in the unlawful general strike. No one can be allowed to attempt to disrupt the FTA negotiations.
