The U.S. and Colombia governments signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006 but it stalled in Congress for five years, primarily because of Democratic concerns about violence against trade unionists and pervasive impunity. Despite a lack of progress against violence over the past three years [1], the Obama Administration pushed for approval of the agreement in 2011.  Congress passed the agreement on, ironically, October 12 (Colombus Day), 2011.

The Colombia FTA (read the full text at the USTR website [2]) is especially controversial because of the high level of violence against Colombian trade unionists.  For years, more trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia each year than in the rest of the world combined. Very few criminals have been prosecuted for these murders, resulting in more than a 95% rate of impunity. The Colombian trade union movement and large sectors of civil society in Colombia have been opposed to the FTA, as has been USLEAP. USLEAP was opposed to even initiating negotiations on an FTA until significant progress had been made on reducing violence and impunity.

Other reasons to oppose the Colombia FTA include its projected negative impact on farmers, health care, and the environment. RECALCA, the Colombian Action Network in Opposition to Free Trade and the FTAA, summarizes the key problems with the agreement from a Colombian perspective in this letter to Congressman Rangel [3].

USLEAP remains committed to delaying implementation of the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until Colombia fulfills its part of the Labor Action Plan [4], agreed upon by the two governments in April 2011.  A Congressional Montoring Group [5] has been established to ensure that concrete progress is made on implementing the Labor Action Plan in addressing worker rights violations before the FreeTrade Agreement goes into effect. President Obama has said he will not bring the FTA into force, i.e. activate it, until "key elements" of the Labor Action Plan are implemented.

Shortly before the October 2011 vote, the highly-respected National Labor School in Colombia (ENS) published a critical report [6] of the Colombian government’s implementation of the Free Trade Agreement Labor Action Plan [7] six months after the Plan’s release, finding that violence and worker protests continue, social dialogue stagnates, and the minimal changes that have been made have failed to positively impact Colombian workers.

Visit our Trade Resources page [8] and Colombia FTA toolkit [9] for more information.