[CTC] U.S.-Colombia Side Deal On IPR Treaties Allowed FTA Implementation To Go Forward

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-15/obama-certifies-colombia-labor-plan-clearing-trade-pact-2-.html

Obama Certifies Colombia Labor Plan, Clearing Trade Pact

By Roger Runningen and Kate Andersen Brower - Apr 15, 2012 4:45 PM PT
Q
President Barack Obama certified Colombia’s labor protection efforts,  
allowing both sides to put the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement into  
effect May 15.
“We’re moving ahead with our landmark trade agreement,” Obama said at  
a news conference with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos as they  
wrapped up the Summit of Americas in the resort city of Cartagena.
Obama called the trade deal a “win” for both nations. In the U.S., it  
will create “thousands” of jobs, he said, and Colombia will get more  
access to the U.S. market, its largest.
There are strong protections in the accord for labor and the  
environment, “commitments that we are going to fulfill,” Obama said.  
The president also said the agreement will help achieve his goal of  
doubling U.S. exports by 2014.
The agreement would end Colombian duties immediately on more than 80  
percent of U.S. exports, open services markets and strengthen  
intellectual property rights, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said in an  
e-mailed statement.
“This landmark agreement opens the door to new business opportunities,  
economic growth andjob creation in the U.S. and Colombia,” said Thomas  
J. Donohue, the chamber’s president and chief executive officer, who  
took part in a first-ever CEOs’ Summit of the Americas.
Expanded Exports
The trade deal, approved by the U.S. Congress in October, will add as  
much as $1.1 billion to U.S. exports when it takes full effect,  
according to estimates from the U.S. International Trade Commission.
The U.S. exported $14.3 billion in goods to Colombia last year and  
imported $23.1 billion, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.  
Caterpillar Inc. and General Electric Co. (GE) are among the biggest  
supporters of the trade deal.
Obama’s certification of Colombian worker protections puts him at odds  
with the AFL-CIO, the largest U.S. labor federation, which Democrat  
Obama is counting on for support in his re- election campaign against  
presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
“We regret that the administration has placed commercial interests  
above the interests of workers and their trade unions,” AFL-CIO  
President Richard Trumka said in an e-mailed statement.
Labor Criticism
The Obama administration “signaled with today’s decision that a little  
improvement is good enough,” Trumka said. “If a little improvement  
were good enough, women might still be fighting for the right to vote  
and our workplaces would be filled with children.”
The U.S. labor federation had sought to have the trade deal delayed  
until Colombia took what the AFL-CIO called “sustained, meaningful and  
measurable action to change the culture of violence.”
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that under the labor  
certification, Colombia has established a new labor ministry, is  
giving workers the right to organize, and promises to prosecute past  
cases of violence against union organizations and provide protections  
for them.
The U.S. will offer Colombia “technical assistance” as it implements  
the labor protection rules, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said on the  
conference call.
Work in Progress
“This is a work in progress” but “we are moving on the right track,”  
Solis said. “Taken together, these actions represent fundamental  
change and historic progress for the lives and livelihoods of workers  
in Colombia,” the Obama administration said in a separate e-mailed  
statement.
Colombia’s Congress passed bills to implement a free-trade accord on  
April 10, days before the Summit of the Americas began.
The free-trade agreement, first reached under President George W. Bush  
more than five years ago, stalled in Congress amid opposition from  
House Democrats and unions. Obama worked to broaden support by  
securing stronger labor commitments from Colombia.
Colombia agreed to completion a “labor action plan,” a side agreement  
signed in April 2011 between the U.S. and Colombia, before the accord  
could be implemented.
Obama’s approval hinged on Colombia taking further steps to protect  
workers’ rights and making progress on reducing the killing of union  
workers by terrorists.
Unionist Deaths
A Washington-based human-rights group called Obama’s decision a  
mistake. About 30 unionists were killed in Colombia last year, the  
Washington Office on Latin America said in an e- mailed statement,  
citing the National Labor School, which tracks such statistics. Four  
have been killed this year, and other trade union movements have  
reported additional murders, the group said.
About 3,000 unionists have been killed since 1986, according to the  
National Labor School, a human rights group.
“President Obama lost a historic opportunity to improve labor rights  
in Colombia, at a time when many Colombian labor rights activists are  
getting harassed and killed,” said Gimena Sanchez, the group’s  
Colombia associate.
To contact the reporters on this story: Roger Runningen in Cartagena,  
Colombia atrrunningen at bloomberg.net; Kate Andersen Brower in  
Cartagena, Colombia atkandersen7 at bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1 at bloomberg.net

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