The FTA with the US has been incredibly controversial in Korea.  In June 2008, massive protests rocked South Korea as people took to the streets protesting the President's decision to resume imports of US beef among fears of mad cow disease and the protests forced the government to re-organize and rethink its approach to dealing with Washington.  However, in December 2008, when lawmakers in South Korea planned behind-closed-doors discussions about the FTA with the US, opposition lawmakers took action and literally knocked down the doors.  These confrontations illustrate how serious this proposed trade agreement is as well as how unpopular and undemocratic the negotiations have been.

Food regulation is just one of the many problems identified by critics in the FTA.  Just last week, an international trade union mission to South Korea found that the trade union rights situation is deteriorating, that South Korea is not living up to its commitments to respect international labor standards when it joined the OECD and the government has failed to implement recommendations from the ILO.  As an example of the state of trade union rights, the delegation was not even allowed to meet with former President of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Lee Suk-haeng, who has been in prison since a KCTU strike action in 2008.  The trade union mission also reported:

High on the list of union concerns is the government’s use of Korea’s
unique “obstruction of business” clause (section 314 of the penal code)
to severely limit legitimate trade union activity. The visiting
delegation, which met with labour, employer and administration
officials, also examined the increasing use of temporary and precarious
employment, with the minimum time an “irregular” worker can be denied a
permanent employment contract now being raised from 2 to 4 years.
Concerns were expressed that the government, which is also seeking to
reduce the minimum wage, is placing the burden of the economic crisis
mainly on the shoulders of workers.

As Global Trade Watch has done a great job documenting, the 2006 and 2008 elections were strong mandates for Congress and the Obama Administration to take a new direction on trade.  A number of new members of Congress are especially vocal in promoting fair trade alternatives to our old NAFTA-style trade model.  If the Korea FTA, as well as Panama and Colombia, are to be considered, they need some serious work to ensure that labor rights will be protected.  Instead, why don't we take a break on these Bush-era agreements and re-assess our approach on trade?