Posted: Friday, 4 January 2008

The Canadian Labour Congress and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, representing over four million workers in both countries, call on our respective governments to immediately halt these trade talks.

This deal is wrong for workers in both countries. It puts corporate profits ahead of the needs and interests of working people in both Canada and Korea. It will damage Canada's manufacturing sector, which is already in crisis because of shifting global production and the soaring dollar. Canada has lost more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs since 2002. These have not been off-set by comparable new jobs, paying decent wages and benefits. The Korean manufacturing sector will also be adversely affected. The trend towards irregular and precarious employment (already at 54% of the labour force) will only intensify as a result of such a trade deal.

In light of the serious manufacturing crisis, the devastating deterioration of Canada's automotive trade balance, as well as the serious risks facing the Korean agricultural sector posed by this agreement, we call on our respective governments to stop negotiations and engage in a process of real consultation with labour and relevant stakeholders - one that will lead to an economic development strategy that will build our societies, rather than pit worker against worker.

By following the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) model, the governments of both countries plan to entrench corporate rights at the expense of workers’ rights and their wages. This deal will weaken public services and social safety nets to the point where they are ineffective in protecting the people of Korea and Canada from the painful side effects of an unrestricted free market. Not learning the lessons of NAFTA, there are plans to keep the infamous "Chapter 11" provisions, with corporations free to sue governments who act in the public good, and both governments constrained from implementing active social, environmental and industrial policies. The core of these negotiations are based on a devastating model of development that can only lead to competition at the expense of workers' rights, labour standards, and the environment.

These agreements which grant excessive rights to business, in particular transnational corporations, and facilitate the mobility of speculative financial capital, weaken workers’ rights as evidenced by the violent attacks against workers exercising their right to organize, and lead to the erosion of basic human rights.

We therefore call for a moratorium on the current trade agreement talks and demand that discussions begin on a fair trade arrangement based on the rights of workers in both countries to fair social and economic development with decent jobs based on the fundamental rights enshrined in ILO core Conventions.