US-Colombia trade pact faces tough test

[Judi Lynn]

US-Colombia trade pact faces tough test
By Eoin Callan in Washington

Updated: 10:12 a.m. CT Nov 22, 2006
When Colombia's trade representative sits down today to sign a long-coveted trade agreement with the US, he may want to pocket the gold pen provided for the signing ceremony as a reminder of the deal he struck in Washington.

Even as the deal is being signed, serious doubts are emerging that the trade pact will ever get past the newly elected Democratic majority in Congress, where there are deep misgiving over the absence of tough labour and human rights standard.

The progress of the deal through the legislature will be a test of the influence of organised labour, which is digging in its heels for a fight when President George W. Bush sends the pact to Congress.

An administration official said: "We are braced for an intensity of opposition from labour on Colombia."

Thea Lee, policy director of the AFL-CIO union federation, said: "Colombia is a very emotive issue for people in the labour movement." He said the country was regarded as the world's deadliest country for union organisers, with more than 1,200 deaths recorded of activists and rank-and-file members in recent years.
(snip/...)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15846496/

[Deja Q]

1. Apart from cocaine, what does Colombia really have to offer?

[Judi Lynn]

2. They've got oil, with U.S. soldiers guarding some parts of their pipeline, I think.

They've also got a huge Coca Cola operation, and other U.S.-owned businesses which utilize their dirt-cheap labor, and hire paramilitaries to murder anyone who attempts to organize unions there so the employees can make slightly more than slave wages in deplorable conditions.

Could be there's some kind of kickback system going on with Colombian politicians, since we're pouring in the THIRD LARGEST AMOUNT of foreign aid to Colombia in the world, right after Israel and Egypt.

(Edited for spelling)

[PartTimeSatanist]

4. Columbia: The last bastion free-market capitalism in that region.

It is pretty obvious to anyone following the politics in South/Central America that the whole region will be pretty red by the end of the decade. Socialists and even old school communists getting elected left and right. Bumbling dumbfucks in Washington realize this and they see a need for a reliable ally in the region. That's why Washington dumps billions annually into the Colombian treasury under the guise of economic re-development or "War on Drugs".

[lakercub]

3. I have no problem with trade deals and

NAFTA-type stuff...when done properly. But we keep signing these damn agreements without ensuring that the other nations will abide by any sort of environmental or labor standards. Free trade and outsourcing is fine...when it benefits both parties. Unfortunately, the way we do it, it is nothing but a corporate giveaway.