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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions call for the South Korean government to adopt seven core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Seoul on Oct. 12. (Park Jong-shik

With the South Korean government stalling on its promise to ratify core conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the European Union (EU) has activated a provision in its free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea designed to settle trade disputes. This is the first time that the EU has used the FTA’s dispute settlement mechanism to take issue with the labor rights provision.

The South Korean government promised to ratify the core conventions when it concluded its FTA with the EU. Although the EU has repeatedly urged Seoul to act on this promise, Seoul has delayed implementation on the pretext that it is “at war with North Korea” and that “discussions are underway through social dialogue.”

On Dec. 17, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that the EU had initiated “government-to-government consultation” with Seoul because seven years have gone by without the ILO core conventions being ratified, a mandatory condition of the EU-South Korea FTA. Government-to-government consultations are a dispute settlement procedure in the FTA by which the governments in question seek a solution through working-level deliberations and the Trade and Sustainable Development (TSD) Committee.

If the two sides are unable to reach a compromise within 90 days, a “panel of experts” can be convened. Composed of six people from South Korea, the EU and a third country, or 18 people altogether, this panel will have 90 days to submit a report detailing its recommendations. The question is whether those recommendations will be implemented will be subsequently reviewed by the TSD Committee.

The eight core conventions adopted by the ILO General Assembly detail the basic rights of workers, including the freedom of association, the ban on forced labor, the ban on child labor and the ban on discrimination. The conventions that South Korea has yet to ratify deal with the freedom of association (No. 87 and No. 98) and the ban on forced labor (No. 29 and No. 105).

The EU has repeatedly called on Seoul to ratify the conventions since the FTA was concluded. The EU-South Korea FTA was ratified by the National Assembly on May 2011 and went into effect that July. In the following year, the EU began pressuring Seoul to ratify the conventions in the TSD Committee, a deliberative body charged with assessing the agreement’s implementation. During the EU-South Korea summit held in Brussels, Belgium, in October, the South Korean government was once again asked to keep the promise it made in the FTA about basic labor rights. During the 5th meeting of the TSD Committee in Brussels in Mar. 2017, according to an EU press report, the South Korean government responded to a request to ratify the core conventions by emphasizing that, technically speaking, South and North Korea are at war.

The government of current South Korean President Moon Jae-in has made ratification of the core conventions one of its policy goals and maintains that it’s “working to ratify the core conventions through social dialogue.” Seoul has repeated this position after the recent initiation of the dispute settlement mechanism.

But the EU holds that social dialogue is not an adequate effort and wants to hear a specific timeframe for ratification. Because business interests represented on the Economic, Social and Labor Council, which is a core component of social dialogue, are staunchly opposed to ratifying the core conventions, it’s not even easy to discuss the topic.

South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labor said that “economic sanctions cannot be imposed because of the labor rights provision in the EU-South Korea FTA” but acknowledged that “delaying ratification will cause the EU to intensify pressure using all available means.” The outcome of the government-to-government consultation could tarnish South Korea’s credibility abroad, even if it doesn’t lead directly to sanctions.

“This will bolster support inside the EU to revise the EU-South Korea FTA to the disadvantage of the party that hasn’t ratified the core conventions,” said Roh Ju-hui, vice chair of the International Trade Committee for MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society.

By Lee Ji-hye, staff reporter

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