'Congress Must Defeat Korea Free Trade Deal'

by James Parks, AFL-CIO (reposted)

Wed, Jun 13, 2007 6:31PM

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 : Korean workers joined with a bipartisan group of members of Congress today to make it clear that unless the Bush administration reworks the Korea-U.S. free trade agreement to include basic protections for workers in both countries, the deal will not pass this Congress. As Rep. Mike Michaud (D-Maine) told a Capitol Hill press conference:

The Korea-U.S. FTA [free trade agreement] has been concluded with no regard for the mass opposition from the Korean people, their allies throughout Asia and American organized labor and civil society.

The press conference culminates three days of discussion and actions by U.S. and Korean workers to stop the trade deal in its present form. After a People’s Forum on the trade deal Monday at the AFL-CIO building in Washington, D.C., the workers spent two days lobbying members of Congress to reject the agreement.

U.S. and South Korean negotiators worked down to the wire to seal the deal, known as KORUS, so it could meet a 90-day required notice period for Congress. By meeting the deadline, the Bush White House can have the deal considered under Fast Track trade promotion authority , which expires June 30.

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For more information: http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/06/13/congress...

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