Industry News

Colombia FTA Moves Forward

April 11, 2011


On April 6, 2011, the Obama Administration announced that the United States and Colombia had reached an agreement on labor rights issues that will facilitate the Obama Administration moving forward with submitting the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (Colombia FTA) to Congress. Deputy USTR Miriam Sapiro and Colombian Ambassador Gabriel Silva initialed the Colombian Action Planon April 7, 2011.   Ambassador Kirk also clarified on April 6th that some of Colombia’s commitments in the action plan will have to be met before implementing legislation will be submitted to the U.S. Congress, others before Congress votes, and still others before the FTA goes into force.  The action plan contains almost twenty steps the Colombian government must take over the next several months to address labor concerns. The action plan includes explicit provisions, including an agreement by the Colombian government to hire one hundred new labor investigators and 2011.

The United States – Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement was initially signed on November 22, 2006, but is still pending Congressional approval. In recent weeks the Obama Administration and the USTR have made a significant push to conclude a deal with Colombian Officials that would remove concerns over human rights and labor rights issues in Colombia, thereby creating an agreement meeting the Obama Administration’s standards for submitting the FTA to Congress. This push followed significant pressure from numerous members of Congress. Colombia’s Congress approved the agreement and a protocol of amendment in 2007.

According to Foreign Policy Magazine, once the FTA enters into force, the U.S. will immediately reduce eighty percent of its tariff on imports from Columbia to zero, and phase out the rest over ten years. Colombia would immediately reduce tariffs on fifty percent of imports from the United States to zero, and phase out the remaining tariffs over the same ten-year period. According to the USTR, the U.S. will have better access to Colombian’s service sector than other WTO members under GATT. The Colombia FTA also contains provisions impacting customs administration, trade facilitation, technical barriers to trade, government procurement, investment, telecommunications, electronic commerce, Intellectual Property Rights, and labor and environmental protection.

The Colombia FTA still faces potential opponents in Congress, including Representative Mike Michaud, who has rejected the deal based on issues regarding human and workers’ rights in Colombia, and a lack of mechanism for enforcement of provisions in the agreement. Furthermore Representative Michaud and other members of Congress circulated a letter on April 6, 2011, to House members asking them to support a bill that would place a moratorium on new FTAs until an emergency commission issues a final report on how to reduce the deficit, to which he alleges the FTAs contribute.  A number of major labor unions, including the United Steelworkers, also still oppose the Colombia FTA despite the action plan.

Moving the Colombia FTA forward, along with Administration reports that Panama is completing the last few steps the Obama Administration required regarding the U.S.-Panama FTA, may finally break the logjam in Congresses’ trade agenda. Ambassador Kirk and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton also recently sent a letter to leaders of Congress urging them to reauthorize the General System of Preferences, the Andean Trade Preferences Act, and Trade Adjustment Assistance. 

 

 

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