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TLC Held Up By Democrats

Concern over union member assasinations in Colombia, and exploitation of workers holds up the free trade aggreement.

" Los congresistas demócratas pusieron el dedo en la llaga sobre el tema sindical. No sólo preocupan los muertos, sino las malas condiciones en que trabajan muchos colombianos."

http://www.semana.com/wf_InfoArticulo.aspx?idArt=103362

By vladimiro on May 13, 2007, 18:33 in Politics & the war.

aztec says on May 13, 2007, 20:07:

Is anyone the least bit surprised? Democrats will put Colombia in a recession! Don't for a minute think they are a friend of Colombia.

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juancegomez says on May 16, 2007, 12:43:

Tinto I can also picture such an extension or, eventually, even a much longer one...

However, I can't entirely agree about your diagnosis regarding the possible failure of the agreement. Or rather, about the agreement itself.

While Uribe and co. may not have done a good job, I think the essential FTA problem tends to be the opposite of what you're implying: they didn't get enough from the U.S. negotiators and instead bowed to too many of their petitions, even if they still dragged things out for too long.

If the negotiations had been shorter, perhaps the agreement would have passed, but at the cost of potentially being even worse for Colombian interests than the current agreement.

Though it sounds like an "impossible mission", IMHO Colombia should have extracted far more concessions while still taking less time to do so.

Let's see..there's this little problem called the drug trade which appeared to be mostly absent from the "purely economical" stance that the U.S. side assumed...too bad that it sure as heck isn't absent in reality.

Instead of wasting so much money on law enforcement attacks against drug cultivation, perhaps including special benefits in the FTA that amounted to real alternatives for drug growers could have actually helped improve things a lot on that front, even from a U.S. perspective.

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elreydelostrolls says on May 16, 2007, 22:04:

The FTA is dead. The Dems rule now and you can kiss any free trade agreements goodbye. Which is what the American people want.

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juancegomez says on May 17, 2007, 17:01:

Probably the FTAs could die... Too bad that it's not really the "American people" who have a say in this, but American congressmen and their respective interests.

Which, whether Democrats or Republicans, aren't necessarily exact reflections of what the "American people" want.

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