Free Trade Agreements and Trade Policy

On December 8, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent to the Obama Administration a letter with 18 other U.S.

Sending a strong signal to the Colombian government as well as to the Obama Administration, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and seven key members of Congress have formed a Congressional Monitoring Group on Labor Rights in Colombia “to ensure that progress is made on labor rights in the coming months.”   

The Mexico Electrical Workers Union on November 14 filed the first NAFTA labor complaint submitted to the Obama Administration.  A similar complaint was submitted on October 27 to the Canadian government.  Both charge the government of Mexico with violating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In a November 3, 2011 letter to Presidents Obama and Santos, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called for a peaceful resolution of two major labor conflicts in Colombia, at Campo Rubiales and Puerto Wilches, calling them a test of whether a Labor Action Plan agreed to in April 2011 represents more than pa

On October 3 President Obama submitted to Congress the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, along with two other Bush-era trade agreements with South Korea and Panama. The House is expected to hold separate floor votes on the agreements as early as October 11.

The Administration is expected to soon send to Congress the long-pending Colombia Free Trade Agreement.  In a September speech to a joint session of Congress, President Obama again made clear his support of the controversial agreement, which has been delayed for years due primarily to concerns about violence against tra

Over 300 civil society organizations from the U.S. and Colombia and another 100-plus academics and individuals from the U.S.

A new report issued on June 8, 2011 by the International Trade Union Confederation shows that more trade unionists were murdered in Colombia in 2010 than in the rest of the world combined.

On May 26, Guatemalan banana union leader Joel Hernandez Godoy, Finance Secretary of the SITRABI union, was shot dead, reportedly by two gunmen on a motorcycle.  According to BananaLink, Godoy “was killed by unidentified gunmen as he left the Nuevo Campo plantation in the community of Los Amates.....   Eyewitnesses waiting for a b

On May 26, Guatemalan banana union leader Joel Hernandez Godoy, Finance Secretary of the SITRABI union, was shot dead, reportedly by two gunmen on a motorcycle.  According to BananaLink, Godoy “was killed by unidentified gunmen as he left the Nuevo Campo plantation in the community of Los Amates.....   Eyewitnesses waiting for a b