Text

Women workers labour conditions and disputes in South Korea free trade zones

---

The main criticism of the creation of special trade zones is that it gives business, usually foreign corporations, more economic liberty than ordinary citizens. A free trade zone or export processing zone or tax free zone is one or more areas of a country where tariffs and quotas are eliminated and bureaucratic requirements are lowered in order to attract companies by raising the incentives for doing business there. After 30 years of neoliberal globalisation, it has been increasingly acknowledged that austerity, privatisation, deregulation of finance, markets and corporations, and trade and investment liberalisation have had a devastating and discriminatory impact on women. UN experts] treaty bodies and international NGOs have heard the persistent critiques of civil society groups and recognised that neoliberalism has a discriminatory and adverse impact on women. In a remarkable turnaround, even the International Monetary Fund is now conscious of the evidence that neoliberal policies are driving inequalities It is now clear that neoliberalism is sexist and is simply incapable of supporting gender-equitable and just sustainable development.
Neoliberal globalisation has led to levels of inequality that have not been seen for more than 200 years. Eight men hold more wealth than half of all humanity; one percent of the world’s population owns more than the other 99 percent; 69 of the largest 100 economies in the world are corporations, and 10 of these corporations are richer than 180 countries combined This level of inequality has been recognised as a threat to social cohesion, peace and democracy. Governments have made repeated commitments to address the adverse impacts of neoliberalism. Through the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, governments have promised to reduce inequalities within and between countries (Goal 10), advance gender equality (Goal 5), eliminate poverty (Goal 1) and end hunger and achieve food security and sustainable agriculture (Goal 2), as well as prevent catastrophic climate change.
Yet, before the ink had dried on Agenda2030, governments proceeded with plans to deepen neoliberalism and bind future governments to the rules that produce the very problems they have promised to alleviate. Governments in all regions continued or commenced negotiations for plurilateral trade agreements that directly contradict the commitments they made, including this directive in paragraph 30 of Agenda2030:
States are strongly urged to refrain from promulgating and applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures not in accordance with international law and the Charter of the United Nations that impede the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries.
Globally, there are more than 3000 bilateral or multilateral agreements that govern global trade and investment. Recent large multilateral agreements, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), have sought to expand the scope of agreements to provide for global governance over an increasing number of economic issues outside of the UN and World Trade Organization (WTO) systems. The agreements, designed primarily to enable unhindered flow of global capital, are a significant barrier to the realisation of the human rights of women. Advocates argue that trade agreements are designed to reduce barriers to trade and ‘level the playing field’ by ensuring foreign investors are not negatively impacted by national laws or regulations that preference locals or that impact on foreign investors. In reality, trade agreements are designed for and by large multinational corporations who are able to displace smaller, local businesses and who use their political power to gain significant advantages.
Trade agreements may provide benefits to people who have the capacity to capitalise on new market opportunities, and workers classified as ‘highly skilled’. However, as women are less likely to hold large amounts of capital, are most commonly engaged in the informal sector, are less likely to have secure land rights and are more likely to benefit from public expenditure in health, education, water and energy, trade agreements have a discriminatory effect. In addition, trade agreements expose a large majority of the global population to violations of their human rights. In 2015, ten UN Human Rights Council mandate-holders voiced their concerns over the impact of trade and investment agreements on human rights, jointly as well as in separate reports. The collective statement warned that trade agreements “are likely to have a number of retrogressive effects on the protection and promotion of human rights, including by lowering the threshold of health protection, food safety, and labour standards, by catering to the business interests of pharmaceutical monopolies and extending intellectual property protectionThe Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement (RCEP) – which covers China, India, ASEAN member countries, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand will impact on a larger number of people than any previously proposed trade agreement. RCEP covers traditional trade issues including trade in goods, services and agriculture, customs, tariffs and trade subsidies – but this represents only a small portion of the agreement. The agreement goes far beyond trade, and seeks to impose an entire regulatory framework on member states that could dictate the extent to which governments can regulate every part of the economy in which the private sector operates. The chapters extend to intellectual property, standards and labelling, telecommunications, competition policies, financial services, e-commerce governance and more recently, government procurement.

---

Availability

KP.X.000054

KP.X.CHE w

My Library

Available

Detail Information

Series Title

-

Call Number

KP.X CHE w

Publisher

Korea Selatan : Seoul Women Trade Union., 2005

Collation

39p. ; 26 cm.

Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

9749493826

Classification

KP.X

Content Type

-

Media Type

-

Carrier Type

-

Edition

-

Subject(s)

Tenaga kerja
Kondisi Perburuhan
Buruh wanita
Zona perdagangan bebas

Specific Detail Info

A project of Seoul Women's trade union and APWLD's labour and migration task force

Statement of Responsibility

-

Other version/related

File Attachment

Comments

---

You must be logged in to post a comment