The Obama Administration continues to take a soft approach to the first labor complaint submitted under CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement), filed against Guatemala in April 2008 by the AFL-CIO and five Guatemalan trade unions. Despite very limited progress in addressing the specific violations documented in the complaint and the submission of a wealth of new violations this fall, the Administration has declined to call for ministerial consultations and instead has added new steps to the complaint process by entering into “pre-consultations.”

In October meetings with the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Labor, USLEAP expressed concern about the delays in the process and the lack of advances, noting especially that little progress has been made against impunity. Violence claimed the life of another Guatemalan union leader in October.