Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Four things unions want you to know about the Canada-South Korea free trade agreement

The recently announced free trade deal between Canada and South Korea has raised the ire of several unions, who warn that it could have a detrimental effect on Canadian workers. Here are four things unions are worried about now that trade is about to open up between the two countries.
1. It supports trade imbalances
Both Unifor and the United Steelworkers have raised concerns that the deal will deepen an already high trade deficit between Canada and South Korea. Last year, Canada exported $3.7 billion worth of goods to Korea in 2012 and imported $6.4 billion, according to a fact sheet provided by Unifor. USW believes that this imbalance is particularly pronounced in the steel industry with steel imports from South Korea far outnumbering imports.

2. Refined goods in, raw goods out
Another concern is that while South Korea does import a great deal of raw materials -- coal, copper, aluminum and wood pulp mostly -- what they export are the kind of goods that should be Canadian-made, namely cheaply produced electronics and cars. This is a big problem for unions. Unifor president Jerry Dias told Canadian Manufacturing that these items should be produced in Canada to create more jobs.
3. The Korean auto-market is a serious threat
A key component of the deal is that over three years it will phase out tariffs on South Korean-made cars, and immediately end tariffs on Canadian car imports. Despite this, Dias has condemned the deal for creating a one-way flow of cars into Canada. He has an ally in Ford Motor Company of Canada -- their CEO Dianne Craig told CBC News that the deal will do nothing to open South Korea's markets.
4. There's a dispute mechanism that could have big impacts
According to a press release from USW, the deal is also expected to have an investor-state dispute settlement process build into it. This process, which allows foreign investors to take action against foreign governments in sometimes private arbitral tribunals, has often been criticized for lack of transparency.
Original Article
Source: rabble.ca/
Author:  H.G. WATSON

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