Peru and Panama Free Trade Agreements

The Bush Administration has negotiated Free Trade Agreements (FTA) in Latin America with Peru and Panama, as well as Colombia. The Peru agreement came up for a vote and passed both houses of Congress and was signed in December 2007. The Panama agreement is not set to come up for a vote until after the Colombia agreement, which is not expected to come up for a vote before spring of 2008 at the earliest. Both pending agreements are subject to the May 2007 Trade Deal which significantly but insufficiently strengthens protections for workers compared to previous trade agreements (e.g. CAFTA and NAFTA).

However, neither the Peru agreement, as passed, nor the pending Panama agreement go far enough to strengthen protections for farmers, the environment, or consumers and both have been opposed by the labor movements in their respective countries, as well as by the labor movement in the U.S.

USLEAP opposed the Peru agreement and continues to oppose the Panama agreement. However, USLEAP currently does not specifically cover Peru and Panama. For more information on these agreements, see the Citizens Trade Campaign and Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.