People have pointed out how KORUS — the „free trade“ agreement that the US signed with South Korea a few years ago, which included draconian intellectual property rules, is „the model“ for „modern free trade agreements.“ It was used as the basis for ACTA, and now it‘s often pointed to as the model for the TPP as well. When KORUS was first being debated, we wondered why a „free trade“ agreement would include rules for stricter monopolies, as that seemed like the exact opposite of free trade. Free trade is about knocking down the walls to protectionism, not building more monopoly power. And yet, that‘s exactly what it did — creating tremendous problems to the point that South Korea is now looking for ways to get out of the intellectual property requirements of the agreement.