Under the cover of night on Friday, President Obama announced a new NAFTA-style "free trade" deal with Korea -- but it's not all that new. It's got all the same provisions in it that he vigorously opposed on the campaign trail when George W. Bush originally negotiated the deal. 1
With 15.1 million people currently unemployed in the United States, it is insane to extend the same NAFTA privileges to Korea that have already ransacked America's manufacturing sector and decimated our labor force.
President Obama is going to send this NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade deal to Congress very soon. We need to put a stop to this new NAFTA immediately, so Congress needs to hear from you now.
Sign our petition to Congress: "No New NAFTA! Don't support another job-killing, NAFTA-style 'free trade' agreement with Korea." Click here to add your name.
http://NoNewNAFTA.com
President Obama says he's doing this to create jobs.2 As Paul Krugman points out today, it won't. 3 But killing jobs is just the beginning of what's wrong with the NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade deal.
Like its job-killing cousins NAFTA and CAFTA, this Korean trade deal would:
Allow foreign corporations to operate inside the United States under privileged international trade agreements, rather than having to obey our laws that apply to our businesses. 4
Prohibit us from limiting the size of banks, making us give up the right to decide what "too big to fail" is on our own shores
Ban the government's ability to adopt "buy American" policies
Prohibit us from banning risky financial goods and services (like derivatives trading), otherwise US taxpayers will have to pay compensation to international companies for the profits they won't be able to reap from engaging in such transactions
Force the United States to submit to the judgment of foreign tribunals
Elevate foreign corporations to equal status with the sovereign United States, empowering foreign companies with new rights to sue the U.S. government before the UN and World Bank tribunals, skirting US courts.
Think that can't happen? To date, US taxpayers have paid out over $400 million in compensation to foreign corporations from such cases under NAFTA. And we spent million in legal costs even on cases we won, with billions more outstanding in unsettled cases. 5
This is a giveaway of American jobs and American sovereignty to foreign corporations. We need Congress to stop the Korea "free trade" deal in its tracks.
No New NAFTA: sign our petition to Congress to stop the NAFTA-style Korea Free Trade deal. Click here to sign:
http://NoNewNAFTA.com
Make no mistake - the Korea Free Trade deal is as dangerous to America as NAFTA, CAFTA, and the rest of the "free trade" deals. Thanks so much for standing up to this new NAFTA.
- Jane Hamsher
Firedoglake.com
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Sources
"AFL-CIO Legislative Meeting Explodes Over Obama’s NAFTA-Style Korea Free Trade Deal," FDL Action. 12/6/10
"159,000 Jobs Lost: The Price of NAFTA-Style Korea Free Trade," FDL Action. 12/4/10
"Trade Does Not Equal Jobs," The New York Times. 12/6/10
"Korea Free Trade Deal," Public Citizen. 12/3/10
"NAFTA Foreign Investor-State Claims," Public Citizen. 11/2010 (PDF)
