#Free Trade Agreement

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Colombia, Panama kick start free trade era

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Colombia signed a free trade agreement with Panama on Friday. The agreement was signed in Panama City by Colombia’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism Sergio Diaz Granados and Panama’s Minister of Trade and Industry Ricardo Quijano. Negotiations for the free trade agreement began in 2009.

Diaz Granados called the agreement, “the most important milestone in the history of relations” between the two countries. Quijano added that the agreement would “open the doors to trade and legal security”.

The agreement brings Panama one step closer to joining the Pacific Alliance, an important Latin American trading bloc comprising Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The conditions of membership of the Pacific Alliance require each new member to maintain bilateral free trade agreements with existing member states. Panama now only lacks a free trade agreement with Mexico.

Before it takes effect the agreement will need to be ratified by the Colombian congress. This will occur in the coming weeks, according to Diaz Granados. The agreement represents a significant step in the Santos government’s program of trade liberalisation, which includes the free trade agreement signed between the United States and Colombia in May of this year. “Colombia continues to deepen its presence in international markets through commercial agreements that will bring possibilities for growth and the generation of employment”, added Diaz Granados.

Colombia and Panama presently trade 2.8 billion US dollars of goods and services annually.  The agreement is sure to increase this amount.

Colombia Politics view

Following the national farmers´ strike in August, Colombians appear to be turning off Free Trade Agreements. Erroneously many lay the blame for the crisis in Colombia´s agriculture sector squarely at the feet of the new free trade pacts with the US and Europe. Although the crisis in the campo runs a lot deeper, Colombian society has developed a critical eye against the policies which Santos at the beginning of his premiership heralded as a panacea for record-breaking economic growth.  Santos has unsurprisingly been a little more reticent about the new agreement with Panama.

Colombia Politics is a champion of the principle of free trade. The devil is always in the detail, however, and most accept that Santos – and Uribe – Governments dropped the ball in their negotiation of the deal with the US. Free trade is fine, but Colombia must negotiate on her terms.

Category: Economy, News Review
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Leading Dutch Socialist, Senator Vliegenthart talks to Colombia Politics

Dr. A. (Arjan) Vliegenthart

Colombia Politics had the valuable opportunity to discuss Colombian politics with a top European politician, Dr. Arjan Vliegenthart.

Dr Vliegenthart is a Senator in the Dutch first Chamber and Head of the Dutch Socialist Party Research Institute.

He agreed to talk to us, and give us his insight and opinion on multiple topics like the Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Colombia, the Colombian Peace Process, Tanja Nijmeijer, the value of tolerance towards left-wing thought in Colombian democracy, and what we identified as lesson drawing opportunities from the Netherlands. Here is what he had to say:

 

 

Category: Comment, Interviews
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´No to Colombia EU FTA´, Interview, Richard Howitt MEP

Colombia Politics interviewed Member of the European Parliament, Richard Howitt on his reasons for opposing the Colombia EU Free Trade Agreement.

Howitt is a British Labour Party politician, and is a vocal critic in the EP of Colombia´s labour and union rights. Here´s what he had to say.

The free trade agreement between Colombia and the EU was approved in the European Parliament this week. Why do you believe that this shouldn’t go ahead?

I think there are very serious questions that the existing human rights clause and the agreement between Colombia and the European Union is not being respected, nor the fundamental rights that are supposedly guaranteed by the trade preferences given by Europe to Colombia under the GSP class scheme (the Generalised Scheme of Preferences) and I think it would be quite wrong to sign an advanced agreement if the terms of the current one are not being fully honoured.

On the “action plan” that Colombia set out on human rights, labour rights and environmental sustainability ahead of the agreement, do you believe that this doesn’t go far enough? What’s your opinion on the plan that they’ve out forward?

Well, what we know is that last year the Americans used an “action plan” that they agreed with Colombia on labour rights as evidence that they should proceed to ratify their own free trade agreement in Congress. Now less than a year later if you ask the American Trade Union Confederation, the AFLCIO, they say that the action plan has not been put into practice and there is a real danger that Europe is just repeating the mistakes of the Americans, accepting promises rather than waiting for those promises to be turned into real action.

Do you see any pitfalls for the Colombian people in the free trade agreement? Will it benefit them?

I’ve been in Colombia I think eight or nine times as an MEP over the years and I’ve constantly met with Colombian civil society, and there is a strong strand of opinion that in the country the trade that results from this agreement could have a negative socio-economic impact, for example increasing land grabs rather than supporting the process of land restitution. My campaigning with fellow MEPs, trade unions, and civil society organisations against the agreement was always on human rights terms, first and foremost, and that remains my huge disappointment that the European Parliament ignored the argument by ratifying the agreement this week.

In that past you’ve spoken a lot about Colombia being a dangerous place for trade unionists, why is that the case? Who is making it dangerous for trade unionists?

I have seen and heard evidence that not simply the trade unionists who speak out on behalf of workers find themselves threatened, attacked and in some cases murdered, but of complicity by the Colombian regime in relation to those human rights violations, and where it does appear that there is a chain linking members of the current or former regime and members of the military with paramilitary forces who undertake those violations. A trade unionist was murdered literally within hours after the European Parliament voted to ratify this agreement. I’m afraid that is a grim reminder of how dangerous it is to be a trade unionist in Colombia.

I hope that the peace process succeeds; I’ve been campaigning for a peace process to start. I know it’s fraught with difficulties and there are many cynics that say that it is bound to fail. I think that we should all invest as much energy, attention and support that we can to try help it succeed. In any conflict situation the prospects for peace very often look remote if not impossible, but you won’t get peace without a process seeking to achieve it and that for Colombia has now begun.

With the FTA to be implemented, what next for your own campaigning on the matter?

Well on the trade agreement the European Commission Commissioner told us in the debate this week that he would bring forward what they call provisional application which means they will implement the free trade agreement even in advance of ratification by national parliaments, and what I would say to the British Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats who blithely voted for this agreement is that I wonder whether their government really supports Europe implementing an agreement that requires national parliaments to ratify it before the British Parliament has done so. There’s a huge contradiction there in the British position and that’s one that I will seek to exploit.

Category: Interviews
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EU-Colombia FTA deal attacked by MEPs

Three MEPs strongly criticised the decision of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee to pass the EU-Colombia trade deal on Wednesday at a press conference in Brussels.

British MEP Richard Howitt and Germans Helmut Scholz and Franziska Keller joined representatives from trade union and human rights organisations to condemn the outcome, which Scholz said was the “wrong decision”.

Scholz, of the German party Die Linke, cited the European Commission´s impact assessment saying that the agreement would “increase pressure on land and natural resources at the expense of the poor, (would) destroy  more jobs in Spain, and would destroy some national economic sectors in Colombia… such as the dairy sector”. Keller, a German Green, added that the decision showed that for many MEPs “economic interests…override human rights concerns.”

Richard Howitt of the British Labour Party welcomed the peace talks currently taking place in Colombia, stating: “I love the country; I want peace and human rights for the country”. However, he urged a delay in the ratification of the deal until “verifiable improvements in human rights” had been made in Colombia.

He continued: “I also see some aspects within the country at the moment, for example new measures to ensure non-prosecution of the armed forces…(and) the  exclusion of land restoration to people who have been thrown off their land by the state, that suggest that the state is not going in the right direction at present”.

Howitt criticised the use of Colombia’s Action Plan on Human Rights, Labour Rights and Environmental Sustainability, presented to the European Parliament last month, as justification for passing the agreement by MEPs, stating that it does not contain binding measures that were called for in a resolution passed by the European Parliament earlier this year.

He drew a comparison with the ratification process of the free trade agreement between Colombia and the US, claiming that the US congress was “pressured” in a “not dissimilar situation just a year ago” on the basis of an action plan which was “not implemented and honoured”

In spite of their protests, the rapporteur for the International Trade Committee, Mario David, proclaimed that the agreement “will greatly enhance economic activity both in the EU and in Colombia and Peru, contributing to economic growth and prosperity of our peoples. We are pleased that both countries have responded to our request by undertaking to make measurable improvements in human, labour and environmental rights.”

The agreement passed the International Trade Committee by a resounding 20 votes to 4, with one abstention. The next stage sees the agreement face a vote by all MEPs which will take place in December, which it looks very likely to pass.

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Colombia-EU FTA: Senators´ Livestock concern

Bogotá, Friday Colombian Senators met in the Senate´s Second Commission to voice concern about the country´s free trade agreement with the EU set for official sign-off in December, and its effects on the Andean nation´s livestock sector.

The Commission conditionally approved the FTA having sought government reassurances that the views and anxieties of farmers will be heard and addressed before the agreement comes into force.

The terms of the FTA with the EU, which were agreed with EU earlier this year, will need to pass through Congress and Constitutional Court before the agreement becomes official and can be implemented.

Conservative Party Senator Carlos Ramiro Chavarro stated that “the government must guarantee our country’s livestock sector competitiveness and quality so that it can compete in international markets.”

Senator Chavarro suggested that government programmes should be considered to support the sector to increase its ability to compete.

In July, $31m was set aside by the Ministry of Agriculture to help modernize the Colombian livestock sector by investing in machinery and improving farming methods, however Chavarro’s believes this won’t be enough to protect the industry.

The health of the agricultural sector in Colombia has been a perennial sticking point in the negotiations of free trade agreements with the US and the EU, which both provide significant subsidies to farmers.

In the EU the Common Agricultural Policy takes up 40% of the EU’s spending at €55bn per year, and favours big agri-business and large landowners as subsidies are related to the amount of land a farm has rather than numbers of livestock or crop production.

Though the EU has agreed to phase out milk quotes by 2015, concerns remain as to whether Colombia can compete in the domestic market on milk and meat prices with potentially cheaper imports coming in from the EU.

Meanwhile, Colombian Minister of Agriculture Juan Camilo Restrepo joined Colombian officials in Washington this week in the first meeting of the administrative committee of the FTA with the US. On the agenda were accusations made by the Colombian Agricultural Society that the US has not fulfilled its commitment to remove agricultural subsidies for exports to Colombia.

Category: News Review
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Obama shows Colombia some leg

The holy trinity? Photo, President´s Office

Was tonight the night Obama answered Colombia’s call?

As predicted on this website on Tuesday, President Obama placed the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement at the heart of his jobs plan, delivered this evening to Congress. Obama demanded that Congress approve the measures therein – immediately.

Obama has shown Colombia some serious leg. Congress must now, finally, consummate the marriage.

How was the plan received?

Unsurprisingly given where we are in the electoral cycle, critics began to circle almost as soon as Obama stepped down from the podium. As I write, they are taking to the airwaves to tear his plan apart.

What’s the problem? Well, simply put, Republicans view the plan as yet further proof that Obama is a spend spend spend President. Obama’s jobs package is estimated to cost the US 450 million dollars to implement. Where will this money come from? Well, Republicans like this answer even less as the plan is to be financed in part through tax rises on the wealthy.

The good news for Colombia is that just about the only thing the Republicans and the President do agree on is the need to push through the FTAs. Colombia must hope that the FTA now be sworn in as an early win (for both sides).

Category: Economy, US Relations