Late 2010 nego­ti­a­tions on out­stand­ing issues with the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agree­ment (KORUS) were a big dis­ap­point­ment to orga­ni­za­tions like ours. The out­come was a sup­ple­men­tal deal that basically only addressed mar­ket access for U.S. autos. The nego­ti­a­tions did not result in the sub­stan­tial changes needed to make the Korea FTA an accept­able agree­ment. To see a sum­mary of of the sup­ple­men­tal deal click here. (pdf)

Push­ing another destruc­tive trade deal is a con­tin­u­a­tion of attacks on work­ers in our coun­try and around the world. Orig­i­nally nego­ti­ated over three years ago by the Bush Admin­is­tra­tion, the Korea FTA is the biggest free trade agree­ment since NAFTA itself. If passed, it will accel­er­ate the off-shoring of Min­nesota jobs, expose the state’s envi­ron­men­tal laws to new types of chal­lenges, and pro­hibit the type of bank­ing reg­u­la­tions needed to head off the next finan­cial crisis.

Update: The Korea-U.S Free Trade Agreement unfortunately passed through Congress on October 12, 2011.  See our statement here and how Minnesota’s Members of Congress voted here.