If Congress Ratifies This Trade Pact, More U.S. Jobs Will Be Offshored

KORUS FTA (Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement) – Now Pending and if Passed Will Be the Final Nail in the Coffin of the American Economy

If an enemy infiltrated our government and wanted to destroy us, this is the type of agreement they would want approved – the new Korean Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA).

We know that NAFTA – the North American Free Trade Agreement – was instrumental in completely destroying our ability to manufacture competitively in the U.S. by outsourcing our manufacturing to Mexico and other countries with labor rates as low as $2 an hour. This has allowed them to ship products back here duty and tariff free – totally destroying our ability to manufacture competitively, unless we want to change our wage rates to $2 per hour.

The KORUS FTA will not only further deplete our manufacturing base, it will also take international trade, banking and finance out of our control.

If this passes every aspect of our economy will be controlled by foreigners. Most of our legislators are not even aware of what is in this agreement – it is hundreds of pages long! Write your representatives or visit their offices with your friends, relatives and this article, and demand that they not let the Korean Free Trade Agreement pass.

Surely our legislators should not be our enemies.

To even consider this disastrous proposed trade agreement is to contemplate economic suicide.

America’s recent trade history with South Korea is filled with serious problems. In 2007, the U.S. sold 7,000 American vehicles in South Korea, or less than one percent of the entire market. South Korean automakers, on the other hand, sold 615,000 vehicles in the U.S. that same year. In the first 10 months of 2010, South Korean auto exports to America totaled $7.41 billion. U.S. auto exports to Korea, on the other hand, totaled just $536 million in the same period –just 7 percent. That is a difference of over $6.8 billion. How would we run anything but a trade deficit with those numbers?

The following points detail why the KORUS FTA will be disastrous for America:

1. It will export jobs, not our exports as promised, and dramatically increase our trade deficit.
We are being promised that the KORUS FTA will create more American exports, but in reality it will only export American jobs. According to the Economic Policy Institute’s estimates, in the first seven years of the agreement, the KORUS FTA could cost as many as 159,000 American jobs and increase our trade deficit by $16.7 billion. Obama has promised that this deal would create 70,000 low-paying insourced jobs (Americans working for foreign bosses), which would not even be half of the high paying jobs we would lose. As more foreign products enter our country, our trade deficit will continue to rise out of control.

2. Korea will gain unhindered liberties to change U.S. law (see chapters 11, 13 & 19 of the agreement).
Any law Korea sees as limiting a corporation’s profitability can be challenged. Even prevailing wage laws can be challenged. This oversteps the ideals and principles our Constitution was founded on. Our leaders are giving too much control of our country to foreign entities. This should be illegal as it undermines everything our founding fathers – and every patriot since then – has fought and died for.

3. The U.S. government will lose the ability to regulate the American banking industry.
This trade deal was negotiated before the financial collapse of 2008. It contains all sorts of Wall Street financial services provisions, including; bans on regulations limiting the size of banks and insurance companies, prohibitions against barring the sale of risky derivatives and limits on capital controls. The greed that caused the failed derivatives market and allowed banks to create the housing bubble cannot be stopped or limited in any way, per the KORUS FTA. Provisions in it will supersede any regulations we put in place to protect ourselves. This alone will be extremely devastating to the American economy.

4. The KORUS FTA will facilitate takeovers of U.S.companies by Korean companies.
The agreement will make any laws or regulations that would stop companies from becoming monopolies illegal. This will make preventing foreign takeovers impossible. With our open stock markets, not only will South Korean companies have access to buy us out with the money they stockpile from our balance of trade deficit, but they will be able to buy whole industries – and we will be financially and legally helpless to stop them.

5. Korea will be able to insource low-wage jobs to the U.S., but American companies will NOT get the same access to South Korea.
The KORUS FTA has terms that grant extreme rights for foreign investors within the U.S. that would allow them to play by very different rules. The scope of what can be challenged in the U.S. is extremely broad. This means that while South Korean companies will be able to come here and do practically whatever they like, American companies will not be able to do the same in Korea’s state run system. It is the height of stupidity to even consider this!

6. The textile tariff reductions are not equal, American textile workers will be put further in harm’s way.
On January 25,2010, five textile trade groups testimony before the House Ways And Means Committee. They pointed out that planned tariff reductions were not equal. For example,the U.S. would have to lower the duty on imports of Kevlar but Korea would not have to lower there duties on similer products. South Korean textiles will overwhelm and eliminate American producers, further destroying states like North Carolina and South Carolina.

7. The U.S. beef industry will continue to diminish.
The beef industry will suffer as Korea would be able to limit our inspection of Korean beef imports, despite constant refusal by Korea to import U.S. beef.

8. More foreign food is projected to legally enter the U.S., increasing our chances of importing even more toxic food.
Korea would be allowed to challenge our regulatory agencies, including being able to limit our ability to regulate the quality of food imports. Currently, less than 2 percent of imported food is inspected as it enters the U.S. – The KORUS FTA will put limits on our ability to check food imports, restricting our already deathly low inspection abilities. We will totally lose our ability to protect ourselves from contaminated or toxic food. Countries like China and Vietnam

9. “Buy American” food support will become illegal.
“Buy Local Food” initiatives are important to economic development in the U.S., but implementing those initiatives could be compromised because they would be considered a non-tariff barrier to trade.

10. South Korea will still use trade barriers that the U.S. does not have.
South Korea has a value-added tax of 10 percent which will act as a tariff after we give them duty free access to our markets. They will be able to give tax breaks and subsidies to their companies, but we will not be allowed to do the same. This will be a huge barrier to American companies.

11. U.S. tax payers could become liable to South Korean companies for lost profits.
Korean companies will have the right to sue the United States for lost profits. This is not only a grievous disadvantage, it also oversteps the power any company – foreign or domestic – should have.

12. There is nothing in the KORUS FTA to stop South Korea’s currency manipulating practices.
South Korea, like China, is a currency manipulator, this fact added to their tax laws will create pseudo-tariffs that the U.S. cannot and will not replicate. This will put American companies at an extreme disadvantage.

This is another “free trade” agreement that will take away our right to do what is in the best interest of our country. The basis of all free trade agreements is to give foreign countries unrestricted access to the American economy, eliminating duties and tariffs that protect our fledgling and older industries. South Korea has a population of 48 million people, while the U.S. has a population of over 300 million. Under the conditions of this “free trade”agreement it would not be possible to accumulate anything other than a massive trade imbalance with South Korea. By selling to us below cost, they are by design forcing our companies to move out of the country, sell out or go out of business – which has already been happening at an accelerated rate. The KORUS FTA will only hasten our demise.

Approving a trade deal with South Korea will NOT make things better for the U.S. Americans must start asking the important questions – namely, who are our leaders working for? Signing a deal like this can only mean our leaders are not reading what they are signing or are working for the best interest of multinational corporations, special interest groups or foreign powers.

Click here to read the 500 page agreement.

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