Wednesday 12 November 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
COLOMBIA-US:
Will Democrats Bury Free
Trade Deal?
By
Helda Martínez
BOGOTA (IPS) -
Ratification by the
United States Congress
of the Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) with
Colombia appears to be
further away than ever,
due to the victory of
president-elect Barack
Obama, who has declared
his opposition to the
treaty, and to the
effects of the financial
crisis.
If anything more was
needed to cause the
Democratic Party, which
has a majority in
Congress and has been
strengthened by Obama's
electoral triumph, to
hesitate over approving
the agreement signed by
Washington and Bogotá,
it is the scandal in
Colombia about the
extrajudicial executions
of innocent civilians,
reported by the army as
guerrillas killed in
combat.
The scandal, which has
already led to the
dismissal of 27 officers
and noncommissioned
officers, including
three generals, involves
the murders of young men
from poor neighbourhoods
in Bogotá and other
cities who were lured
from their homes with
fraudulent job offers,
murdered a few hours
later and presented as
casualties of
"successful" military
operations against
leftwing insurgents.
Analysts say the
killings, in which
high-level military and
police chiefs are
implicated, reinforce
the arguments of
Democrats against
ratifying the FTA with a
country where violations
of labour, civil and
human rights are rife.
Nevertheless, Colombia’s
ambassador in
Washington, Carolina
Barco, remains
optimistic, saying the
trade deal could be
approved in the
lame-duck session
scheduled to start in
the U.S. Congress on
Nov. 17. Colombian Trade
Minister Luis Guillermo
Plata holds the same
view.
All the parties involved
recognise that the
situation today is very
different from that of
May 2004, at the start
of the negotiations for
the FTA, when right-wing
Colombian President
Álvaro Uribe said he
believed that the treaty
would be ready to go
into force in less than
a year.
"Resistance by broad
social, labour and
indigenous sectors of
the Colombian
population, as well as
by small pharmaceutical
and farming businesses
and parts of the
industrial sector,
delayed the negotiations
and, to some extent,
torpedoed them," Aurelio
Suárez, an activist and
op-ed writer for the
local newspaper La Tarde,
told IPS.
The debate continued
until "August 2006, when
the FTA had passed the
first hurdle in the
United States, and the
90-day period before the
voting deadline in
Congress was running
(under the 'fast-track'
rules). Then there was a
sudden change, because
the Democrats won a
majority in Congress,
and pressure on Uribe
increased, which has
redoubled now with the
executions scandal," he
said.
Since then, the FTA has
advanced at a snail's
pace. The Colombian
parliament, with a
government majority,
ratified it in 2007,
while lobbying continued
in the U.S. by advisers
who were receiving
80,000 dollars a month
from the Uribe
administration, as
Minister Plata confirmed
on La W, a Bogotá radio
station.
However, one year ago
Vice President Francisco
Santos admitted that the
FTA was caught up "in a
whirlwind of political
disputes." And there it
has remained, according
to analysts consulted by
IPS.
"Uribe turned his back
on Democratic Party
legislators, and now
they are getting their
own back. It's too late
now for him to make
gestures signalling a
bipartisan policy,"
Enrique Daza, head of
the Centre for Labour
Studies (CEDETRABAJO),
told IPS.
According to Daza, it is
unlikely that the FTA
will be ratified by the
U.S. Congress any time
soon, because "it has a
very tight agenda, with
many pending items" that
have accumulated because
of the financial crisis
and the election
campaign. Therefore, "it
would be mistaken to
expect that the FTA
might become a
priority."
In the same vein,
economist Ricardo
Bonilla at the public
National University of
Colombia said that
"throughout his
campaign, Obama opposed
voting on the FTA, and I
doubt that Uribe will be
a priority on the
immediate agenda of the
U.S. Congress."
Bonilla did not rule out
the possibility of
approval later on, "with
minor changes like those
made to the FTA between
the United States and
Peru, but in the case of
Colombia, the
seriousness of the
accusations of human
rights violations will
draw the careful
attention of U.S.
legislators," he said.
Senator Jorge Enrique
Robledo of the left-wing
Alternative Democratic
Pole party (PDA) was
more sceptical. A fierce
opponent of the FTA, he
initiated legal action
in parliament against
Uribe for treason
against his country when
the trade agreement was
signed.
"Let us not forget that
the United States is an
empire, with an
imperialist policy that
is supported by
Democrats as well as
Republicans," Robledo
told IPS.
"Let us remember that
the FTA with Peru is
identical to the FTA
with Colombia, and it
was approved by the U.S.
Congress," he said.
"In the case of
Colombia, I think (the
reluctance to approve
the FTA) is due to
personal grudges against
the mistreatment of
Democrats by U.S.
President (George W.)
Bush, and against Uribe
for his close ties to
Bush, in addition to the
violence and
paramilitarism in
Colombia," he said.
"That's why, once the
political burdens are
eased, I wouldn't be
surprised if Obama,
after setting minor
conditions, finally
approves the FTA,
because ultimately it is
part of the imperialist
policy," he said.
In any case, Robledo
said he thought opinion
in the United States,
which blames free trade
for the economic crisis
and growing poverty and
unemployment afflicting
that country, would
carry more weight. "All
of which is also true,"
he stressed.
Scepticism about prompt
ratification of the FTA
is also bolstered by
labour conflicts in
Colombia in the past few
months, with lengthy
strikes taking place in
the judicial branch, the
tax service, the Civil
Registry, and in
particular the
two-month-old strike by
sugarcane workers in the
southwestern departments
(provinces) of Valle del
Cauca and Cauca.
Meanwhile, the
government is not giving
up. Uribe congratulated
Obama and "the people of
the United States for
their great democracy,
worthy of admiration,"
as he wrote in a message
sent on Nov. 5 to the
U.S. president-elect.
In his letter, Uribe
referred to Colombia's
historical alliance and
bipartisan relationship
with the United States,
which he said would not
change.
He also said that "it is
in Colombia's interests
that large, strong
democracies should
exist, as they are
examples of freedom,
respect for private
enterprise and social
responsibility."
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