Lawyers Group Wins Big Case to Make FTA Documents Public

The Lawyers for a Democratic Society won a lawsuit that demanded the government release some undisclosed documents related to Korea-US FTA negotiations. On January 21, Seoul Administrative Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff (the lawyers group) in a lawsuit where the lawyers demanded the minister of industry, commerce and energy cancel his refusal to disclose the information.

Before the ruling, last year, the Lawyers for a Democratic Society asked the minister to make Korea-US FTA documents in 30 sectors on March 15, the day of taking off the lock of a safe with such documents in. But the government refused their demand, saying, “Their disclosure may damage the nation’s grave interests. This is because the disclosure will expose Korea’s negotiation strategy and responding process and they may be used as evidence disadvantageous to Korea in possible conflicts in the future.”    

Thus, in June 2015, the civic group filed a lawsuit against the government, demanding the disclosure of papers exchanged between Korea and the U.S. The two countries exchanged the papers to add sentences against the rights or interests of Koreans who make investment in the US to the preface of the FTA agreement until the official signing of the agreement on June 30 after two rounds of renegotiations in June 2007.   

“The defendant only claims basically and abstractly that the information of this case includes the two countries’ positions and negotiation strategies as evidence that supports their argument that the information is highly likely to be used as information for negotiations by other countries,” the court said.    

“Even if the information of this case is made public, it is only a small portion of the vast Korea-US FTA agreement. Thus, it is hard to say that the disclosure of the information will risk exposing the Korean government’s basic position or key negotiation strategies," the court added. “The defendant’s evidence is not enough to support the notion that the disclosure of the information will significantly put national interests in harm’s way.”