Solidarity Action in Burlington, Vermont

Students and Workers to deliver Valentines message to Vermont's Congressional Delegation:
"Don't Break My Heart with the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement"

Date: Wednesday, February 14th
Time: 9:30am
Place: Senator Leahy's office, 199 Main Street
Contact: Helaine Alon, Students for Peace & Global Justice, 617 513 3536
Jonathan Kissam, Vermont Workers' Center, 802 343 1705

Burlington, VT - On Valentine's day, students from UVM's Students for Peace and Global Justice, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) and members of the Vermont Workers' Center - Jobs With Justice will deliver hundreds of Valentines to the offices of Vermont's Congressional delegation, urging them to oppose the proposed free trade agreement between the U.S. and the Republic of Korea (South Korea).

"The US-Korea Free Trade Agreement would be an extension of the failed NAFTA model that has been disastrous for workers, farmers and the environment," said Jonathan Kissam of the Vermont Workers' Center.

As preconditions to the talks, the Bush administration has demanded that South Korea lower its auto emissions standards and suspend a program which had successfully lowered the cost of prescription drugs. "We need to move forward on climate change and access to affordable medicines, not backwards," notes UVM student Helaine Alon.

Negotiators from the Office of the United States Trade Representative and the Republic of Korea are meeting this week in Washington, D.C., for the seventh and possibly final round of negotiations. If signed and approved by Congress, it will be the largest free trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Korea is the world's eleventh-largest economy, with a GDP of $787.6 billion in 2005, slightly larger than Mexico's.

More information on the US-Korea free trade agreement is available from the Korea Policy Institute, http://www.kpolicy.org.