The Colombia free trade pact is bad policy

[Judi Lynn]

The Colombia free trade pact is bad policy
By Lauren Damme, policy adviser to International Program at Demos - 07/30/10 11:06 AM ET

Earlier this month, President Obama stated that he would push forward the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, along with those of Panama and South Korea, “as soon as possible.” This announcement came amid a concerted White House effort to appear more pro-business and was touted as an important step to fulfilling the president’s promise to double exports within five years.

It is hard to know whether the administration is serious about pushing the Colombia FTA or just posturing. Let’s hope the latter is true. Bringing up the agreement, which is strongly opposed by the AFL-CIO and other unions, would trigger an intra-party battle among Democrats over trade. And even if the White House prevailed, it would be a pyrrhic victory. The Colombia trade pact is plain bad policy. The deal would reward egregious labor and human rights violations, bring minimal benefits to the U.S. economy, and have destabilizing impacts on Colombia — which will be paid for by American taxpayers in the form of U.S. aid.

First, Colombia is infamously known as the most dangerous country in the world for unionists, but less well-known are the series of scandals that plagued Uribe’s tenure, including widespread party connections between Uribe’s close advisers and relatives to "demilitarized" paramilitaries, illegal wire-tapping of human and labor rights activists by DAS, the Colombian equivalent of the CIA, and the "falsos positivos" scandals in which the military murdered over 2,000 civilians and then dressed them as guerrillas to claim progress in Colombia’s internal war.

None of this may change with incoming president Juan Manuel Santos, Uribe’s handpicked successor who assumes power on Aug. 7, 2010. As former minister of defense and a closely held member of Uribe’s party, Santos’s proximity to these scandals means he will not take office with a clean slate, but must earn support by respecting human and labor rights as well as the independence of Colombia’s courts. The FTA is a big carrot the U.S. holds to push reform in Colombia, and it may be needed to make Santos prove what Uribe could not: that he can boost security while respecting human and labor rights.

More:
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/foreign-policy/111865-the-colombia-free-trade-pact-is-bad-policy

[Wilms]

1. Hmmm. The unrecers are out.

Surprised any DUer would favor these trade pacs.

DLC/NeoCons?