|
 |
|
 |
|
|
 |
2004-10-29 18:01:13 |
|
|
 KoPA |
 원정투쟁단.jpg (129.6 KB), Download : 392 |
 v_00305006.jpg (57.5 KB), Download : 390 |
 We Demand an Immediate Stop to Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement Negotiations - The FTA will destroy the livelihoods of people in the two countries! |
|
|
While Korean government and Japan government are accelerating its negotiation process, more than 80 Korean workers and social movement activists will visit Japan and have rallies, sit-in struggles and marches around the meeting place.
<Photo1: Inauguration of Korean Struggle Delegation (Jinbonet), 30th Oct. Photo2: First day of protests in Tokyo (EPS)>
More than 80 Korean Workers and Social Movements will Visit Japan to Protest against Korea-Japan FTA Talks
The 6th Korean-Japan FTA negotiation will be held in Tokyo from 1st to 3rd November. While Korean government and Japan government are accelerating its negotiation process, more than 80 Korean workers and social movement activists will visit Japan and have rallies, sit-in struggles and marches around the meeting place.
For obvious reasons, the negotiators are on high alert and are trying to run away from the protestors - the venue of the negotiations was scheduled to be held in a hotel, but then was changed to the Foreign Ministry building in Sibuya. We cannot rule out the possibility that the government will change the meeting place once again. However, this will not hinder the determination of the Japanese and Korean protestors.
We, the Korean labor movement and social movements are focusing on the destructive result of the Korean-Japan FTA. When the FTA is completed and implemented, Korean main industries will be seriously affected and workers will face structural adjustment programs in their factories, leading them to lay-offs, decreased wages, harsh working conditions and casualization of their jobs. It is expected that when the FTA is completed, the motor industries would loss more than 20,000 jobs.
Furthermore, we, Korean workers and social movements, are worried about its political and military oriented intentions of the FTA. Once the Korea-Japan FTA is completed, it will give way for Japan to take military initiatives in the Asian region, especially in the relation with North Korea.
This struggle in Japan, following the last struggle during 5th Korean-Japan FTA talks in August, is expected to give momentum not only to the anti Korean-Japan FTA protests but the anti-globalization movement in Korea as a whole. Also, it shows a new possibility to strengthen solidarity between Korean and Japanese movements.
Joint Statement of Korean and Japanese Workers and Social Movements
We Demand an Immediate Stop to Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement Negotiations - The FTA will destroy the livelihoods of people in the two countries!
The governments of Korea and Japan will hold the 6th negotiations for the Korea-Japan Free Trade Agreement (KJFTA), from 1st to 3rd November, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kasumikaseki, Tokyo. Workers, social movements and NGOs in Korea and Japan have strongly been demanding that the two governments immediately halt their negotiations and that they gain the consensus of people in the two countries, ever since the talks began last December. This is because the KJFTA has the potential to infringe the most basic rights of the people in the two countries. However, the two governments have consistently turned a deaf ear to our demands and continue their negotiations.
After the Doha Development Agenda framework was agreed upon during the WTO General Council meeting in July, governments are further driving for bilateral and regional FTAs that they had been promoting. Amidst all this, Korean and Japanese governments plan to conclude the KJFTA in 2005 to mark the 40th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic relations between the two nations, and then to go further to establish a free trade area in the East Asia region, including China.
At the moment, the two governments are refusing to disclose any of the contents of the negotiations, citing reasons of 'diplomatic custom'. In order words, issues that are of great concern to the everyday lives of people in the two countries, such as labour, environment, healthcare, and agricultural sovereignty, are being unilaterally discussed behind firmly closed doors. If the two governments come to an agreement, the FTA will then immediately be submitted to the National Assemblies to be ratified. At this very moment, our precious lives and rights are being traded off in such a ridiculous way. Our lives, our environment, our health are not objects that can be traded. This Earth that we live upon is, for sure, not a commodity. Therefore, we sternly disagree to the negotiations that are taking place.
Prior to the KJFTA negotiations, business, government and academic counterparts of the two countries published a 'Korea-Japan FTA Joint Study Group Report' last October. This report unilaterally concludes that although in the short run, the KJFTA is expected to have a negative impact on Korea due to increased trade deficit, in the long run, it will be beneficial to both countries because of the strategic alliances that will take place between industries. Nowhere in the report is there a mention of the fact that increased trade deficit against Japan will force small businesses to bankrupt, nor that restructuring and integration of businesses through "strategic alliances" will drive workers and their families onto the streets. This is why there are rising voices in Korea, which is expected to be hit harder, calling for 'caution' or a stop altogether.
The effects of the KJFTA become even more evident, when we look at it sector by sector. In agriculture, in a situation where rate of food self-sufficiency is dropping in both countries, the FTA will further weaken the foundations of food production. From the perspective of consumers, measures that have been recommended, such as the Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), Sanitary &Phyto-Sanitary Measures and the introduction of Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) standards, have the potential to threaten health and food safety. The Korea-Japan Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that took off in January 2003, despite resistance of both countries, takes the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) as its model. The governments are now discussing the possibility of integrating the clauses of the BIT into the FTA, with the intention of further progressing, through the FTA, the investment treaty. We cannot accept this strengthening of the investment treaty, which enables foreign investors to file suits against the State while ignoring labour and other regulations of the invested country.
The KJFTA negotiations are also tabling measures that will seriously undermine various social movements, including the workers, peasants, environment and consumer movements, by including 'Non-Tariff Measures' and 'Reorganization of Business Environments'. The FTA identifies various movements that are directly related to lives of people to be 'non-tariff trade barriers' that obstruct free trade and investment. Moreover, the governments are investigating into the possibility of introducing measures to suppress people's movements - which are considered as 'barriers' - under the name of 'reorganizing business environments'. This is something that is not even in the WTO. The attempts to undermine rights of the people through 'non-tariff measures' and 'reorganization of business environments' must immediately be stopped.
Today, the 'Korean Struggle Delegation to Stop KJFTA' arrived in Japan, to voice out our refutation against the FTA. Japanese social movements and organizations have formed the 'November Joint Action Committee against the KJFTA Negotiations' in solidarity with the Korean Struggle Delegation and to undertake joint struggles. We declare that from today until 3rd November, workers, social movements and NGOs of Korea and Japan will initiate joint actions against the KJFTA November negotiations, and we adamantly demand the following to the negotiators of the two countries.
- Disclose all negotiations and proceedings to the public!
- Immediately halt all attempts to undermine rights of workers and peoples under the name of 'non-tariff measures' and 'reorganization of business environments'!
- Immediately stop negotiations for all free trade agreements, including the Korea-Japan FTA, which destroy our work, our lives, our environment and our human rights!
1st November, 2004
Korean Struggle Delegation to Stop KJFTA (Korea)
'November Joint Action Committee against the KJFTA Negotiations' (Japan)
日韓勞働社會市民團體の共同聲明
日韓兩國民衆の生活を破綻の崖っぷちに追いやる
日韓自由貿易協定交涉は卽刻中止せよ！
日韓兩國政府は、１１月１日から３日までの３日間、東京․霞ヶ關の外務省において日韓自由貿易協定（ＦＴＡ）をめぐる第６回交涉を行なおうとしている。私たち日本と韓國の勞働社會市民團體はこれまで、日韓ＦＴＡ交涉が始まった昨年１２月以來、この日韓ＦＴＡが日韓兩國民衆の基本的人權を損なうおそれがあるものとして、政府間交涉の卽刻中止と、兩國民衆の意見を收斂することを强く日韓兩國政府に要請してきた。しかし兩國政府は、私たちの要請を顧みることなく、現在も交涉を繼續している。
現在、各國政府は、７月にスイスのジュネーブで開かれたＷＴＯ一般理事會でドーハ開發アジェンダの基本骨格が合意されて以降、これまで進めてきた２國間․地域間ＦＴＡの締結交涉をさらに拍車をかけようとしている。こうした中、日韓兩國政府は、日韓條約締結から４０年目になる２００５年の早い時期に日韓ＦＴＡを締結し、それを足がかりに、ＡＳＥＡＮ諸國をはじめとする東アジア各國とＦＴＡを締結して、中國も含む東アジア地域の自由貿易圈を創出しようと狙っている。
日韓ＦＴＡの交涉內容は、外交交涉であることを理由に、私たち日韓兩國の民衆には一切公開されていない。勞働、環境、健康、食の安全、農業主權、公共サービスなど、私たちの日常生活にかかわるあらゆる問題が、私たちのあずかり知らないところで一方的に推し進められ、合意にいたれば國會でただちに批准する、こんな安易な方法で私たちのかけがいのない命と權利がやりとりされているのだ。私たちの生活や環境や健康は賣り物ではない！ 私たちの住んでいるこの地球は賣り物ではない！ 私たちは、こんな政府間交涉に斷固として反對する！
日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に先立って、昨年１０月に取りまとめられた日韓の産官學による日韓ＦＴＡ共同硏究會報告書では、對日赤字の增大など短期的には韓國側に不利なものの、長期的には日韓産業間の戰略的提携がすすむことで兩國に有利に働くと一方的に結論づけている。しかし、對日赤字の增大で倒産を强いられる韓國の中小零細企業や、戰略的提携による企業間の再編統合過程で、無慈悲に街頭に投げ出される日韓の勞働者やその家族、民衆の境遇については、何ひとつ檢討されていない。こうしたことから、とくに被害が大きい韓國側からは日韓ＦＴＡ中止論․愼重論の聲が大きく擧がっている。
農業分野では、日韓ともに食料自給率が低下している中でのＦＴＡの實施は、兩國民衆の大切な食料生産基盤をいっそう惡化させる。消費者の立場にたっても、「貿易の迅速化」の名分で行なわれる相互承認制度（ＭＲＡ）の導入や衛生植物檢疫（ＳＰＳ）措置、食品規格委員會（コーデックス委員會、ＣＡＣ）基準の導入などは、人の健康や食の安全を脅かす可能性が大きい。また、私たちの反對の聲を押し切って昨年１月に發効した日韓投資協定は、多國間投資協定（ＭＡＩ）の內容を踏襲するものだが、今回の日韓ＦＴＡ交涉では、この日韓投資協定を日韓ＦＴＡに組み込むことも檢討されている。これは、日韓投資協定のグレード․アップ化を狙うものであり、私たちは企業が國家を訴えることを可能にする投資協定の强化を容認することはできない。
さらに日韓ＦＴＡ交涉では、勞働運動や農民運動、環境運動、消費者運動などを取り締まるため、「非關稅措置」と「ビジネス環境整備」という條項を盛り込もうとしている。民衆のさまざまな運動を、「自由な貿易․投資」を妨げる「非關稅障壁」と捉え、またスムーズな「ビジネス環境整備」のため、その「障害」となる民衆運動の彈壓を可能にするこうした制度の導入は、ＷＴＯにもない新たなイシューとして檢討されている。日韓兩國政府は、「非關稅措置」や「ビジネス環境整備」を隱れミノにした民衆の權利侵害條項をただちに撤回すべきである。
ここに至って、日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に反對して、韓國から韓日ＦＴＡ阻止韓國民衆遠征鬪爭團が來日し、日本ではこの遠征團を受け入れてともに鬪うために、日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に反對する１１月日韓共同行動實行委員會が結成された。そして、本日より交涉期間中の１１月３日まで、私たち日韓の勞働社會市民團體は、日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に反對する１１月日韓共同行動に取り組むことを宣言し、日韓兩國政府交涉團に以下のことを强く要求する。
これは、日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に反對する日韓共同行動の第一步であり、この日韓連帶の步みはさらに大きく廣がっていくだろう！
■ 日韓兩國政府は、日韓ＦＴＡにかんする交涉テキストと交涉の全過程を公開せよ！
■ 日韓兩國政府は、「非關稅措置」や「ビジネス環境整備」を隱れミノにした勞働者民衆の權利侵害措置をただちに撤回せよ！
■ ․私たちの勞働․生活․環境․人權を破壞する日韓ＦＴＡをはじめとする、すべてのＦＴＡ交涉を卽刻中止せよ！
２００４年１１月１日
日韓ＦＴＡ交涉に反對する１１月日韓共同行動實行委員會（日本）
韓日ＦＴＡ阻止韓國民衆遠征鬪爭團（韓國）
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
15
1
1
