Eyes on Trade

Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch blog on globalization and trade

What's New -
Global Trade Watch

Aug. 20 - Blog: Huffington Post: Does the U.S. Trade Rep. Secretly Love Higher Tariffs?
Aug. 9 - Report: Investment Rules in Trade Agreements: Top 10 Changes to Build a Pro-Labor, Pro-Community, and Pro-Environment Trans-Pacific Partnership
Aug. 5 - Map: Under the Korea FTA, These Multinational Corporations Could Challenge U.S. and Korean Law
Aug. 4 - Blog: Huffington Post: Tribunal OKs Mining Corp's CAFTA Attack on Green Policy: Did Team Obama Really Need More Reasons to Renegotiate Bush's NAFTA-Style Trade Deals? 
Aug. 3 - Press Release: Pac Rim CAFTA Challenge of Salvadoran Environmental, Mining Safety Policies Given Go-Ahead by Tribunal
Jul. 30 - Blog: Huffington Post: Turn Away from the Cliff on Trade, State Legislators Group Tells Obama
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Korea Free Trade Agreement

The Bush administration notified Congress of its intent to launch negotiations on the Korea “free trade agreement” (FTA) on February 3, 2006, and formally began the negotiations on June 5, 2006. The agreement was signed and negotiations were concluded on June 30, 2007. In June 2010, the Obama administration announced plans to move on the FTA, but Congress and the public are demanding that the agreement be changed to be consistent with the fair-trade principles that President Obama promised during his campaign.

As it is currently written, the Korea FTA will promote further financial services deregulation - even after the hard lessons learned through the economic crisis. And it will be the first U.S. trade deal with a major capital exporter since NAFTA to include the extraordinary rights for foreign investors. These led to many corporate demands for taxpayer cash in challenges of U.S. and Canadian public interest regulations in foreign tribunals. There are over a hundred significant Korean investors in the U.S. that would have new rights under the FTA to challenge local, state and national laws.

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