On the occasion of the 3rd round of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between South Korea and the EU taking place from 17th till 21st September in Brussels, Belgium, members of the Korean Alliance against Korea-EU FTA (KoA) and members from social movements and civil society organisations from Europe have come together to join forces and struggle together against the Global Europe strategy and the Korea-EU FTA.
Movements from both regions share the analysis and are concern that :
– The new strategy Global Europe : Competing in the World unveiled by the European Commission in 2006 sets an aggressive EU’s trade agenda. At the heart of this agenda is a push to improve the global competitiveness of European corporations at the expense of people and the environment in Europe and in the whole world. Global Europe poses a serious threat to social justice, gender equality and sustainable development not only outside
the EU, but also within. The EU Commission and the member states argue that making EU corporations fit for global competition and increasing trade will lead to “more jobs” and “allow us to save the European social model”. Yet the opposite is true. With trade liberalisation across all sectors – agriculture, industry and services –the beneficiaries are a handful of corporations.
– In order to advance the aggressive interests of EU corporations, the European Commission and member states now openly pursue their
interests – such as investment agreements or access a countries services
sector – that cannot be achieved to the extent wished in an agreement in the WTO, through bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Among the targeted countries by the EU there are : India, South Korea, ASEAN, Mercosur, Central America and Andean Region. The goal of these bilateral or bi-regional free trade agreements is to open and deregulate developing country markets for European companies, to increase their access to natural resources, in particularly to energy reserves and to secure their profits by enforcing intellectual property rights and other trade defense mechanisms. What this means for the EU people as well as for the population in all targeted countries is more power for the corporations and less for people to regulate the economy. Millions of livelihoods are under threat. Farmers, and particularly small scale women’s farmers, who simply cannot compete with powerful agribusinesses will be driven off their land.
– The FTA with Korea is the first of the new generation of Global Europe agreements that the European Commission started to negotiate. The negotiations not only have moved extremely fast but are also setting a benchmark for the agreements to come. If the Korea-EU FTA is signed it will have devastating impacts for the workers, the farmers, the environment and the democracy in both sides. The argument that Korea is an OECD country and therefore will not suffer these effects is misleading and fails to aknowledge that FTAs are agreements between capital and corporations and that workers and farmers are left behind. While governments say more free-trade will bring more wealth and jobs for the people, the experience shows that such agreements have led to de-localizations, lost of jobs in the industry and in agriculture and worsening working conditions with a particular strong impact on women.
These unfair trade deals are based on a neo-liberal perspective, they threaten livelihoods of millions of farmers and workers. We call social movements and civil society organisations from all regions to say NO to Korea-EU FTA as well as all the FTAs pursued by the EU. We call all social movements and civil society organizations to intensify the struggle and to pursue the development of people’s alternatives to neoliberal globalization and the free trade and investment regime.
Brussels, 19th September 2007
List of signatory organizations :
Korean Alliance against EU-Korea Free-Trade Agreements, South Korea
(300 Korean organizations, included Korean Confederation of Trade
Unions, Korean Peasant League, Korean Metal Workers’ Union, Korean
Health Workers’ Union, Korean Swine Association, Korean Dairy and Beef
Farmers’ Association, Korean Government Employees Union, Korean Public
Services Union, People’s Solidarity for Social Progress, ...)
Alianza Social Continental, Latin America
All Japan Teachers and Staffs Union (ZENKYO), Japan
Attac Austria
ATTAC Finland
ATTAC France
ATTAC Japan
ATTAC VLAANDEREN, Belgium
CADTM, Belgium
CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), Netherlands
DENORE, Timor Leste
Dutch GATS Platform, Netherlands
Ecologistas en Acción, Spain
ETADEP, Timor Leste
Europe solidaire sans frontières (ESSF), France
Federation of Indonesian Peasant Union (FSPI), Indonesia
FONGTIL, Timor Leste
Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth Finland / Maan ystävät, Finland
Friends of the Earth Korea / Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM), Korea
Friends of the Earth Denmark / NOAH, Denmark
HAKADA, Timor Leste
HARADA, Timor Leste
HASATIL, Timor Leste
INOP, Timor Leste
Japan Family Farmers Movement (NOUMINREN), Japan
LAIFET, Timor Leste
LUTA HAMUTUK, Timor Leste
National Coalition of Workers, Farmers and Consumers for Safe Food and Health in Japan (SHOKKENREN), Japan
National Federation of Trade Unions of Agricultural Cooperative Association in Japan (ZENNOKYOROREN), Japan
No to WTO Coalition, Japan
PARAGOS, Philippines
PERKUMPULAN HAK, Timor Leste
PERMATIL, Timor Leste
RAPERTA, Timor Leste
SANTALUM, Timor Leste
Tokyo Metropolitan Chapter of Japan, Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries
Ministry Workers Union (ZENNORINTOKYO), Japan
Transnational Institute (TNI), Nederlands
Union Syndicale Solidaires, France
UNORKA, Philippines
Via Campesina, International
World Economy, Ecology and Development (WEED), Germany
WIDE, Europe
World Development Movement, United Kingdom