Thread: NO TO FTA ,STOP THE MALAYSIA - US FTA NEGOTIATION NOW

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www.ftamalaysia.org/file_dir/52575805145fa6188865a2.doc

PEOPLE'S PROTEST AGAINST FTA
MEMORANDUM TO
THE MALAYSIAN CABINET MINISTERS
Mach 14th , 2007

NO TO FTA ,
STOP THE MALAYSIA - US FTA NEGOTIATION NOW
We the citizens of Malaysia , converging from all the states representing the various sectors : farmers , padi planters , small traders , workers , smallholders , fishermen , landless people , urban dwellers , religious groups , rural workers , media practitioners , youth , women , artists , students , academicians , health workers, cooperatives members, citizens organizations , political activist , NGOs from the environment , consumer , cultural , health , human rights and educational groups , private and public workers , rally here today in front of the Prime Minister's Department , to demand that the Cabinet Ministers who are meeting today , to halt the Malaysia -US FTA negotiation and withdraw all the Malaysian officials from the negotiation table.
We understand that the Cabinet will be making a decision soon on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States.
The People's Protest Against FTA rally today urges the Government not to continue with the negotiations.
The FTA will have a dire impact on the sovereignty of the country as our own national policies will be decided by a foreign nation which will dictate according to its interest. This is in effect selling off our hard won independence to another country.
We confirm that the benefits to our country are not clear at all while the costs from the FTA will be very high.
The Government will lose its ability to maintain many key present policies and make new policies. Prevailing social arrangements will be adversely affected as the FTA may cause tensions in Malaysian society.
The implementation of the 9th Malaysia Plan and its success will also be threatened. This means that our national development policies will be dictated by the US rather than by our own Malaysian government. The FTA in essence will hamper our country's development since any development that is in contradiction to the FTA will need to be amended even if it is not in our national interest.
The FTA will even have a severe impact on the implementation of our national development projects. If in the process of awarding projects to companies is found to violate certain provisions in the FTA, the government could be sued by a US company and the implementation of the projects could be suspended or even ceased.
We also affirmed that through the FTA, national companies will have a lesser share of the government projects as US companies will be able to bid for more and more of the available projects offered. The government will not be able then to award special treatment to national companies own by bumiputeras or otherwise and thereby defeat the whole purpose of achieving ethnic balance amongst national companies drawn by the NEP.
Malaysian companies will be unable to compete with giant US firms and banks. With a competition law that allows uncontrolled race to acquire the biggest share of the market , only big companies from the US will monopolize and rip the maximum benefit , living even Malaysian GLC unprotected.
Since the FTA forces our trade and investment to be opened up, the Government will be unable to continue supporting local firms and products. As a consequence with the reduced share of local investors, jobs will be eliminated and unemployment will rise.
Worse, consumers will have to suffer higher prices of medicines and pay higher costs for information and digital products due to tighter intellectual property laws.
In fact the FTA will undermine our policies to protect the environment and our public health. The US even wants to dictate our environmental and health policies to fit their interest under the guise of free trade.
The US is imposing through the FTA that Malaysia will not be allowed to have a GMO labeling requirement for consumers to make their choice. The US push for voluntary labeling will incapacitate the Malaysian government to put a control in the market on all the US GMO products with health risk to the public.
Within the clause of "most favored nation" which will be part of the FTA , Malaysia will be forced to give all other countries in the FTA equal treatment that is given to the US. This will further deteriorate our sovereignty on our national policies.
In trade, Malaysia may also lose out as we open our markets. This will affect our rice, tobacco and chicken farmers, as well as industrial companies such as the national motorcar industry. Under UPOF, our farmers will be forced to buy seeds from big companies which will keep them under the control of the companies.
After the Singapore FTA with the US came into force in January 2004, the Singapore trade deficit with the US has increased from USD1.4 billion in 2003 to USD4.3 billion in 2004, USD5.5 billion in 2005 and USD6.9 billion in 2006.

There is therefore no reason for Malaysia to sign an FTA with the US nor to continue with the negotiations as it is very costly to do so.
Malaysia can maintain positive and better trade and economic relations with the US without an FTA.
With the above expectations we are not convinced by the assurance announced by the government that the interest of the country will be protected. Negotiating with the US for an FTA to us is a high risk attempt and a gamble that would wipe out 5 decades of independence through a globalized liberal free market economy.
Negotiating for an FTA with the US to us is a sell out of our national sovereignty. The fate of the 25 million people of this country cannot be gambled away by an agreement which binds its future to a foreign nation.
What the Cabinet will eventually decide on this contentious issue of an unjust trade agreement will be a testimony to the victimized generations to come. We shall not allow this to happen.
We rally here today to call on all the elected representatives of the people that have been mandated to hold high positions as Ministers to :
1. Call off the FTA negotiation.
2. Reject any attempt by any foreign country to dictate our own trade policies.
3. To exercise transparency in all international treaties and agreements undertaken by government officials.
4. To allow enough public feedback on any international commitments that affects the livelihood of the people..
5. Save guard national institutions especially those that affects the daily livelihood of the people from been controlled or monopolized by foreign corporations.

Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid


IPN: Rice versus reason as farmers protest against FTA
http://www.policynetwork.net/main/artic ... cle_id=761

29 June 2007

Rice versus reason as farmers protest against FTA
2006-08-03
Philip Stevens and Alec van GelderSouth Korea's rice farmers are not just famous for their unique sticky rice. They are also fast developing a reputation for being politically sticky opponents of free trade negotiations. The amplified rhetoric and vested interest of such groups is holding up a new Free Trade Agreement with the US that would not just be good for their country, but for the whole region. The stunts of these subsidy-addicted farmers make good photo-opportunities (they jumped into Hong Kong harbour at the WTO meeting last year) but they detract attention away from the benefits the other 90 per cent of South Koreans would get from opening their economy. And, as Thailand and Malaysia start FTA negotiations with the US, it is important that vested interests there do not threaten those talks too.

Anti-trade activists present trade as a zero-sum game, in which economic gains for one country are a loss for others. In fact, free trade increases wealth overall by lowering prices, creating jobs, opening new markets and compelling companies to compete by developing better products. In the early 1960s, South Korea was poorer than Ghana _ now, with 70 per cent of the South Korean economy reliant on international trade, it is hard to believe that the country is questioning the merits of free trade.

Despite many restrictions, trade between South Korea and the US in 2005 reached an enormous $84 billion (3.18 trillion baht), but this could shoot up by 13 per cent in the short term alone under this pact. According to the government-backed Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (Kiep), the South Korean economy could expand by as much as 2.27 per cent a year under the FTA.

But the estimated benefits would be slashed by a quarter if South Korean rice farmers succeed in excluding agricultural produce. The rice farmers will be okay, though: They get 63 per cent of their income in subsidies from the South Korean taxpayer.

Pharmaceuticals are another area of contention in Asian FTAs. Many governments impose restrictions on the types of imported medicines that may be reimbursed by their own public health authorities, in order to protect domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers from foreign competition.

Another devastating affliction on poor people in the region are the real barriers imposed by Asian governments in the form of punitive tariffs on imported medicines -- as much as 18 per cent in the case of Thailand.

If these and other barriers can be reduced, not only would it make modern medicines cheaper for consumers, it would expose the sluggish local pharmaceutical industries to competition. Improved IP (intellectual property) protection standards would incentivise these industries to develop useful new drugs themselves instead of relying on state protection to simply copy foreign products -- a process that has already begun in India, which enacted a new patent law in 2005. In this way, the health of the people and the economy would improve in a virtuous circle.

The creative industries are another case in point. One of the more controversial aspects of this FTA is a reduction in South Korea's quotas for local films, allowing more foreign films to be screened. The local industry relentlessly attacks this, claiming its status deserves protection for cultural reasons.

South Koreans are still likely to watch domestic content but a more competitive market would drive South Koreans and the US to invest more in catering to what local people actually want -- instead of what the government thinks they should want.

Put differently, this will finally enable South Koreans -- rather than South Korean bureaucrats -- to choose which movies they watch. The promise of competition has already empowered South Korean directors to take more risks. International blockbusters like Wang-ui namja (The King and the Clown) and Oldboy are the result.

A free market offers South Koreans what years of protection never could: Better movies, more valuable jobs and greater choice.

Leaving the convincing numbers aside, there is only one way for the emerging economies of Asia to play a bigger role in the global economy -- that is to compete with the world's best and brightest. South Korean entrepreneurs constantly prove their worth in spheres such as electronics and the automotive industry, but other vibrant industries will never emerge from behind a protective wall of tariffs.

In South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia, FTAs offer the best hope of progress. With the Doha round of multilateral trade talks ending in failure, the World Trade Organization (WTO) may no longer be a relevant forum for trade liberalisation. Any WTO member -- ranging in size from China to Togo -- can scupper an agreement. In contrast, an FTA has only two parties, making a mutually satisfactory deal more likely.

Finally, greater economic and trade ties also make strategic sense. As authoritarian China begins to flex its muscles in the region, it makes sense for East and Southeast Asian nations to seek the stability and interdependence provided by increased trade and prosperity. The pressure will then be on other governments to forge greater ties not just with the US but, at least as importantly, with each other. Bilateral deals are a step in the right direction, but multilateral deals are much, much better.

And the more China can be brought into free trade deals, the more it will find economic freedoms to be in its own self-interest and the more its growth will benefit its neighbours.

South Korea needs this FTA, but the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) must also achieve real internal free trade instead of just talking about it, as it has for the last 15 years. The whole region needs to boost prosperity and cement strategic alliances with the interdependence of free trade. The benefits for Asia are too important to be derailed by special interest lobbies.

Philip Stevens and Alec van Gelder are analysts at the International Policy Network, a development think-tank based in London.



Click here: [Ip-health] Bloomberg: S Korea Deploys 100,000 Police Against FTA Protesters
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/ip ... 09829.html

Bloomberg: S Korea Deploys 100,000 Police Against FTA Protesters
Mike Palmedo mpalmedo@cptech.org

Wed Jul 12 10:56:02 2006

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S. Korea Deploys 100,000 Police Against Protesters (Update2)
July 12 (Bloomberg) -- The South Korean government deployed 100,000
police officers in downtown Seoul today as thousands of workers
demonstrated against trade negotiations with the U.S.

About 30,000 protesters clashed with 15,700 riot police in front of the
Seoul City Hall at 5 p.m. local time, authorities said. Police fired
water cannons trying to disperse the crowd who retaliated by shaking
police buses that had been set up as barricades. Central Seoul faces
severe traffic jams because of the protests and torrential rain.

The demonstrations came mid-way through talks in the city that are the
second round of negotiations between the U.S. and South Korea for a $29
billion free-trade agreement. An evening media briefing by Ambassador
Kim Jong Hoon, South Korea's chief negotiator, was postponed until tomorrow.

The U.S. wants South Korea to open its rice market and expand access to
the auto and pharmaceutical industries, while South Korea wants rice
excluded from the accord. The Korean Alliance Against Korea-U.S. FTA had
called for a 100,000-strong march in the capital. As darkness fell, riot
police lined the barricaded roads around the presidential Blue House.

Earlier in the day, members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions,
decked in rain coats against the rain, took over the roof of the Dong-a
Ilbo newspaper's Ilmin Newspaper Museum at a central downtown
intersection. They draped the building with banners calling for an end
to trade negotiations with the U.S. and equal rights for temporary workers.

Unions on Strike

The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, which claims 63,000 members at
major companies such as Hyundai Motor Co., said its members will be on
strike today. It encouraged its members to join the demonstration.

The Ministry of Labor said about 74,000 workers had joined the one-day
strike, with members of the less militant labor group Federation of
Korean Trade Unions also participating.

``We are sick of the government's propaganda that the free- trade
agreement with the U.S. is the only way forward,'' Kim Jin In, the
Alliance's spokesman, said before the rally began. ``We plan to show our
strength during today's rally, be there rain or shine.''

Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler and Korea's Kim are
leading the talks. They hope to reach an agreement by year's end so it
can be ratified before President George W. Bush's trade authority expires.

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OMG...IT JUST NEVER ENDS DOES IT? THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED

House Republicans push for Bush trade renewal
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=8874

House Republicans push for Bush trade renewal


U.S. House of Representatives Republicans sought a broad renewal on Thursday of the Bush administration’s "fast track" trade authority to conclude world trade talks and smaller bilateral deals.
ReutersHouse Republicans push for Bush trade renewal28 June 2007WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Republicans sought a broad renewal on Thursday of the Bush administration’s "fast track" trade authority to conclude world trade talks and smaller bilateral deals."Without trade promotion authority, countries won’t come to the negotiating table and we risk losing market share around the world," said Rep. Wally Herger, a California Republican.Trade promotion authority, also known as "fast track" trade legislation, allows the White House to negotiate trade deals that Congress must approve or reject without making changes. Trade bills otherwise risk getting bogged down by amendments.Since winning the authority in 2002, the White House has negotiated trade deals with Singapore, Chile, Australia, Morocco, Bahrain, Oman, the Dominican Republic and several countries in Central America.The United States and Panama signed a free trade agreement on Thursday with only a few days to spare before key U.S. legislation expires on Saturday.It also hopes to win congressional approval of pacts with Colombia, Peru and South Korea before President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. That task became more difficult after Republicans lost control of Congress last year.Many Democrats, who blame trade deals for job losses in the United States, have been eagerly awaiting the day that trade promotion authority expires.But Louisiana Rep. Jim McCrery, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, said the expiration of trade promotion authority "was not a cause for celebration."Trade deals expand U.S. exports, help reduce the U.S. trade deficit and cut costs for U.S. businesses and consumers through cheaper imports, McCrery said.Key Democrats — including Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel of New York and Senate Finance Committee Max Baucus of Montana — have been waiting for a breakthrough in the Doha round of world trade talks to help overcome opposition in their own party for renewing trade promotion authority.However, a major setback in those talks last week has renewed doubts that a new world trade deal can be reached.After fast track last expired in 1994, it was eight years before Congress renewed it again.McCrery said he hoped Republicans would be able to work with Democrats to prevent another long lapse.

US, Panama sign free trade pact just in time
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=8866

US, Panama sign free trade pact just in time

The United States and Panama signed a free trade agreement on Thursday with only a few days to spare before key US legislation expires.
28 June 2007U.S., Panama sign free trade pact just in timeReutersWASHINGTONThe United States and Panama signed a free trade agreement on Thursday with only a few days to spare before key U.S. legislation expires.Like trade deals struck with Colombia and Peru, the Panama pact requires congressional approval. It is considered relatively noncontroversial, but it is unclear how soon Congress will take action.The Panama pact tears down tariffs and other trade barriers between the two countries in manufacturing, services and other sectors. Over 88 percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial goods to Panama will become duty-free immediately, with remaining tariffs to be phased out over 10 years.The Panama agreement and another pact with South Korea that will be signed on Saturday are likely the last trade deals the Bush administration will submit to Congress.That’s because the White House’s "fast track" trade promotion authority expires at midnight on Saturday (0400 GMT on Sunday).That legislation allows the White House to negotiate trade deals that Congress must approve or reject within a specified period of time without making changes.Any trade agreement signed after Saturday would not have that protection, making it much harder for U.S. trade officials to negotiate a deal and get it through Congress in one piece.The deal includes provisions that require the United States and Panama to abide by core international labor standards and certain international environmental agreements. Democrats, who won control of Congress last year, demanded the language be inserted into trade pacts.The United States and Panama began talks on the pact in April 2004 and finished in December after stopping and starting several times.Panamanian negotiators were concerned that the agreement not be seen by their countrymen as returning control of the Panama Canal to the United States just as the country was embarking on a project to expand the waterway.The pact guarantees Panama’s construction firms at least 10 percent of the contracts in the $5.25 billion canal expansion, while providing U.S. companies preferred access to one of the largest building projects in the world.It also gives Panama’s farmers more access to the U.S. sugar market, a sensitive sector for the United States.Panama’s agriculture minister resigned last year in protest of the market-opening agricultural concessions Panama would have to make in the deal.More than half of current U.S. farm exports to Panama, including high-quality beef and other meat and poultry products, will become duty-free immediately, with most other farm tariffs phased out over 15 years.

source: ABC News


Click here: Put the FTA back in the hands of the people
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=8879
posted 29-06-2007 [26 page views]

Put the FTA back in the hands of the people

Renegotiations on the FTA with the United States have effectively come to an end. Following approximately one more round of talks, the two countries will finalize and sign the document on June 30.

The Hankyoreh, Seoul

Editorial: Put the FTA back in the hands of the people

29 June 2007

Renegotiations on the FTA with the United States have effectively come to an end. Following approximately one more round of talks, the two countries will finalize and sign the document on June 30.

However, the country is still in the dark about the results of the renegotiations. You can be sure that there will not be ample time to review the document when the government releases the results of the renegotiations on Friday or Saturday. It would seem there is reason to worry. No consistent principles have been put forward and just how Korea is supposed to benefit remains unclear. The document could wreak havoc on our economy if things go wrong.

Government promises about the FTA have disappointed the country several times already. It said there would absolutely be no renegotiating, then said ‘‘additional negotiations were possible’’ then later, that ‘‘there could be revisions to the document,’’ essentially accepting the renegotiations. When it finally commenced with renegotiations it said it would first sign the existing draft and then have separate talks about what had not been adequately negotiated, but then it got pushed along by American demands, and is now leaning towards saying that the conclusion of all negotiations before the end of the month is inevitable.

The situation is similar when it comes to what the effects of the FTA will be and how to make up for them. Less than a month after the initial negotiations found compromise in April, the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy and 10 other government think-tanks released a questionable analysis, which said that the economic benefit would be an additional 6 percent growth over the next 10 years. It would be hard to speak more highly of what the government says it is going to do about the negative side effects. Other than increasing the ratio of how much loss can be compensated for in farming and agricultural productivity, government plans are not much different from its 119 trillion won (US$129 trillion) investment and financing plans that are part of its existing agricultural strategy. It looks like the government had to scurry to find something to say, because the rules say that it is supposed to announce the measures before it signs the FTA.

The negative effects are to be expected, once you have looked at the draft that was released earlier, but it is unclear what the positive effects are going to be. The situation is such that it is hard to expect that the original goal, namely improved productivity and an economic structure befitting a fully developed nation, will be fulfilled. The government’s claims about the benefits have clearly been exaggerated. Also, it remains unclear as to whether the rules of regular dispute resolution, something that is at issue in the area of labor and the environment - which is what the renegotiation was all about - are going to apply.

The process does not end just because each government signs the document. We should discard the agreement in the National Assembly ratification process if we at any time feel the FTA is not going to be to our advantage. Therefore, it is up to the people and the National Assembly to decide. The government’s eyes, however, are focused on nothing beyond concluding the deal and signing it. For all intents and purposes, it has no interest in the people. We hope it corrects itself if it is thinking that the document is going to be easily ratified once it is signed.


South Korea, US agree on changes to free trade deal
http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=8867


South Korea, US agree on changes to free trade deal


South Korea has accepted a U.S. request to add new labour and environmental provisions to a trade deal they reached in April and will sign the pact by a Saturday deadline, the prime minister said.
South Korea, US agree on changes to free trade deal

29 Jun 2007

Source: Reuters

By Jack Kim

SEOUL, June 29 (Reuters) — South Korea has accepted a U.S. request to add new labour and environmental provisions to a trade deal they reached in April and will sign the pact by a Saturday deadline, the prime minister said.

South Korean and U.S. negotiators held two rounds of talks in the past week on adding the provisions into what would be the biggest U.S. trade deal in 15 years, aiming to ensure it wins congressional approval.

"The U.S. proposal, reflecting its new trade policy, does not add much of a burden on our side in substantive terms," Prime Minister Han Duck-soo told a forum on Friday.

An official at Han’s office quoted him as saying he believed Seoul’s acceptance would improve the prospects for the deal in Congress.

The deal, which is supported by the majority of South Korea’s public, is likely to be approved by parliament, analysts said.

South Korea joins Peru, Colombia, Panama, all of which have trade deals in various states of play with the United States, in accepting Washington’s demands to include the provisions on environmental protection and labour standards in their pacts.

Congressional Democrats reached a deal with the White House in May that paved the way for approval of the Republican Bush administration’s free trade deals if the provisions were added.

The standards are already being enforced in South Korea and are compatible with its policy, Han was quoted as saying.

South Korea and the United States are scheduled to sign the deal on Saturday, when the White House mandate expires to negotiate trade agreements that Congress can reject but not revise.

Studies have said the deal could add $20 billion to the more than $70 billion a year trade between South Korea and the United States, boost South Korea’s economy by as much as 6 percent over the next 10 years and add 340,000 jobs.

The deal, reached in April after 10 months of negotiations, has faced stiff opposition from South Korean farmers fearful of losing heavy import protection and U.S. automakers who fear it would unleash a new wave of Korean cars in their market.

Seoul on Thursday announced a package worth more than 130 trillion won ($140 billion) through 2013 to compensate for losses to farms and fisheries. ($1=926.5 Won)



source: Reuters

Panamanians protest US trade deal

Groups of students, professionals, and unions in Panama are protesting the signing Thursday of a free trade agreement with the US, for considering it an affront to the country s sovereignty and dignity.

Panamanians Protest US Trade Deal

Panama, Jun 28 2007 (Prensa Latina) — Groups of students, professionals, and unions in Panama are protesting the signing Thursday of a free trade agreement with the US, for considering it an affront to the country s sovereignty and dignity.

The protesters will be rallying in front of the provincial headquarters of the ministry of trade and industry, as summoned by the National Agricultural Organization of Panama (ONAGRO) and the National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights (FRENADESO).

FRENADESO and ONAGRO denounced in a joint release that the agreement with the US will mean the end of the national industry and agriculture, bring about more unemployment, flight of capital, and the loss of social and labor rights, among other problems.

That proposal will be like a stabbing for the national farming sector, and attempts against the people s food security, the text highlighted.

Competition between two considerably different economies is impossible, the groups stressed.



source: Prensa Latina

Originally Posted by redpony353

OMG...IT JUST NEVER ENDS DOES IT? THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED

YOUR ABSOLUTELY RIGHT.....THERE ARE ENOUGH BATTLES TO KEEP US BUSY FOR YEARS...........