Uribe's Failure to Win U.S. Congress Signals Loss of Trade Pact

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Bloomberg

Uribe's Failure to Win U.S. Congress Signals Loss of Trade Pact

By Mark Drajem

Sept. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has fired three generals tied to drug cartels, agreed to extradite a narcotics boss and hired top Democratic lobbyists to try to persuade the U.S. Congress to sign on to a trade accord.

No sale.

Colombia and the Bush administration reached the accord 18 months ago, and it has languished in Congress ever since. Democrats and unions say the murders of Colombian labor leaders and the Uribe government's links to paramilitary groups mean the Latin American nation doesn't deserve the deal.

The standoff has left the White House and business allies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. trying to head off what would be the first-ever rejection of a trade agreement by Congress. That would have reverberations reaching far beyond the $16 billion in commerce between the two nations.
(snip)

Colombia remains ``the most dangerous place in the world to be a labor leader,'' says Representative James McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who has been among the leaders in Congress in putting pressure on the Uribe government. ``There's still no rule of law. If the deal came up for a vote now, not only would I not support it, I would fight against it.''




Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a7ULPgnWA4ew&refer=us

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Sorry, Colombia! Stop killing union leaders.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bush officials tout trade agenda, woo Congress

Bush officials tout trade agenda, woo Congress
Mon Sep 10, 2007 12:42PM EDT

Featured Broker sponsored linkWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. officials head to Congress on Monday to rally support for President George W. Bush's trade agenda, seeking to smooth the path for free trade deals among lawmakers deeply divided on the issue.

Sen. Charles Grassley, the Senate Finance Committee's ranking Republican, will host U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, along with business groups that are lobbying for swift passage of agreements with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

"We're rested and ready and we're going to come out in full force," said Nicole Venable, director of international and global competitiveness at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
(snip)

Another pillar of the administration's agenda is trade promotion authority, which allows Bush's negotiators to broker trade deals that are voted on in Congress without changes.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN1031017120070910?pageNumber=1

[Peace Patriot]

3. "We're rested and ready..."??? Nice tans from lying on the beaches of Caribbean mansions?

Muscles all relaxed from daily massages and herbals wraps in the penthouse suites of luxury resorts? Tensions wafted away by the ministrations of poorly paid young brown sex workers who have no health benefits and are still paying off their passage from wherever their shantytown of origin is located to wherever the rich congregate? Fun-filled week of skiing on the melting ice glaciers? Slept well at the ranch after "clearing brush" with *? Lowered the heart rate in a hobbled quail shoot?

The sweatshop slaves of Jamaica and Saipan and Cambodia and Mexico and Colombia will be overjoyed to hear that somebody in this world in "rested and ready," and all clear-eyed and pumped up to deliver campaign contributions--or knee-cappings, as the case may be--to members of the Diebold II Congress.

We peons and cannon fodder, otherwise known as American voters, should also be comforted to know that are (s)elected representatives will be well advised by the "rested" and the "ready."

[Robbien]

2. It would be so great if this was the final word

but I don't see the international corporate elites allowing any Latin American country to remain free of the chains a FTA brings.