US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement

ILRF opposes the pending Colombia FTA due to serious human rights abuses in the country. While the agreement was signed in November of 2006, it still remains to be ratified by the US Congress.

As ILRF testified to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Colombia currently houses some of the worst labor rights violations in the world. Trade unionists are routinely murdered, tortured and threatened with death: since 1991, over 2100 have been assassinated. Many of these extrajudicial killings have even been directly linked to Colombian military forces. We are concerned that the Colombia FTA will only embolden the anti-union sentiment in the country, providing yet more favor to corporations over the workers and unions on which they rely.

Disturbingly, the very organizations which stand to benefit the most from this trade agreement-- US multinational corporations—have been involved in aiding and abetting this bloodshed, including by financial support. Cases have been brought against Coca-Cola, the Drummond mining company and Occidental Petroleum accusing them of supporting paramilitaries that terrorize and kill union organizers. These corporations and their peers are the real beneficiaries of President Bush's proposed trade deal.

The Colombia FTA is a bilateral trade agreement between the US and Colombia, which aims to eliminate barriers to trade and to create an economic climate which is ripe for private investment and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); the agreement also makes reference to environmental policies, labor rights, intellectual property rights and institutional organization.

Many critics of the Colombia FTA have argued that it is but yet another tool for US government and corporate interests to entrench themselves in the Latin American region. The agreement aims to institutionalize an environment that is attractive to foreign investment, by diminishing corporate taxes and ensuring copyright protections. Consequently, it has potential to seriously undermine already poor labor rights in the country. It will moreover give preferential treatment to corporations over small-scale subsistence farmers.

It should be noted that most Colombian workers and their unions are against the proposed U.S.-Colombia trade agreement; unlike American investors, workers in Colombia have little to gain by further U.S. investment without real accountability for violence against unions and for other human rights abuses.