Colombian farmers ‘under serious threat’ from free trade agreement: Agricultural organizer
Colombian farmers ‘under serious threat’ from free trade agreement: Agricultural organizer
posted by Andrew Wight
Dec 5, 2013
As President Juan Manuel Santos wraps up his trip to the United States, promoting the benefits of deepening trade trade ties between the two countries, farm leaders back in Colombia continue to express concern over the long-term effects of the 2012 free trade agreement (FTA) signed by Santos and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama.
Policies removing import tariffs on agricultural goods originating from the United States pose a “serious threat” to Colombia’s rural economy, according to labor organizer Luz Dary Hernandez, a spokesperson for the Small and Medium Farmers Association of Boyaca and Agricultural Comprehensive Coordination Bureau for Boyaca.
“When all the potatoes and vegetables are replaced by cheap imports from the US, then where will be the proposal by the Colombian government each time this agricultural crisis intensifies?” said Hernandez in an interview with Colombia Reports.
“We are at a disadvantage. As small and medium producers it is very difficult to compete against subsidized agricultural products from the United States.”
More:
http://colombiareports.co/colombian-farmers-serious-threat-free-trade-agreement-oxfam/
(What a shame they have to experience what has already happened to millions already in the Americas, through trade agreements.
How helpless they, too, must feel.)