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Colombia

The specious "national security" argument
26-Mar-2008 IRC Americas Program
In the past week the Bush administration has unearthed a "national security" justification for passage of the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement that can’t be allowed to stand.
Colombian union leader builds opposition to free trade deal
25-Mar-2008 Workday Minnesota
Edgar Paez considers himself fortunate to be able to campaign across the United States this month against the proposed US-Colombia free trade deal. Twenty-two members of his union - assassinated for their activism - weren’t so lucky.
Emerson defends Colombia, says Korea trade talks could fail
24-Mar-2008
Free trade talks between Canada and South Korea have hit some serious roadblocks and could end in failure, Trade Minister David Emerson said Tuesday.
The Colombia trap
17-Mar-2008 AlterNet
There have been a lot of surprising developments in recent days on the Colombia FTA, most recently with Dem leadership seeming to be suggesting that there could be a vote on the Colombia FTA if there is more trade adjustment assistance. (As we’ve argued before, it’s hard to get all worked up for TAA, because it is highly inadequate to the scope of the problem, but that’s for another time.)
Change to Win urges Congress to reject Colombia free trade agreement
12-Mar-2008 Sun Herald
Change to Win released a print ad today demanding the United States Congress reject the Colombia Free Trade Agreement deal that the Bush administration is threatening to send to Congress in the coming weeks despite strong opposition.
White House eyes new trade war
12-Mar-2008 Politico
The White House is moving toward sending the Colombia Free Trade Agreement to Congress without the blessing of Democratic leaders. Already, a coalition of business groups pushing for the trade deal is forming “war rooms” and ramping up lobbying efforts in anticipation of the coming battle.
USTR Schwab: "Time is now" on Colombia trade pact
6-Mar-2008
U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told Congress on Thursday "the time is now" to approve a free trade agreement with Colombia, signaling a fight with lawmakers seeking stronger rights for workers.
Bush urges Congress to pass Colombia trade pact
4-Mar-2008
President George W. Bush urged U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to put aside differences over a free trade agreement with Colombia and approve the pact to show support for a strong U.S. ally at the center of a crisis in Latin America.
US-Colombia pact mired in row over labour abuses
4-Mar-2008 IPS
"Even if Colombia had a sterling record on human rights, if there were no assassinations of trade unionists, the Colombia free trade agreement would still be a bad idea," said Economic Policy Institute global policy director Tony Avirgan.
House approves trade pact extension
28-Feb-2008
The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a 10-month extension of a trade program aimed at promoting imports from four Andean nations and thus discouraging the cultivation and production of illegal drugs.
US labor leaders to Bush: No trade deal with murderers
16-Feb-2008 PWW
Top labor leaders ended a trip to Colombia Feb. 13 by telling that country’s president, Alvaro Uribe, that American unions will not support the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement until the killing of union members by right-wing death squads there is put to a stop.
Why Afro-Colombians oppose the Colombia FTA
8-Feb-2008 The Hill
The US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is considered a non-starter in the US Congress because the country is the world’s deadliest for union activists. Less known, but equally disturbing is the systematic violence now confronting Afro-Colombians.
Stephen Harper’s bizarre logic of free trade with Colombia
14-Jan-2008 NUPGE
How can Canada denounce human rights abuses in China while turning a blind eye to the mass political murder of trade unionists in Colombia?
Legalizing terror: Canada-Colombia "free trade"
3-Jan-2008 rabble
Interview with Manuel Rozenthal, long-time international solidarity activist and surgeon, and member of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, about the proposed Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement,
Colombia thanks Harper for trade deal lobbying
20-Dec-2007 Embassy Magazine
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s role in lobbying the United States Congress to ratify its free trade deal with Colombia has been warmly acknowledged by the Latin American nation’s government amidst mounting opposition to Canada’s efforts to ink an agreement of its own.
Bush and Harper ignore Colombia’s labor rights reality
11-Dec-2007 Colombia Journal
There is no moral justification for the United States and Canada negotiating a free trade agreement with Colombia when the foundation of these pacts is the slaughter of Colombian unionists. The perpetrators of these crimes should not be rewarded with an agreement that most Colombians do not want.
Bush wields Colombia trade deal to halt Venezuela
8-Dec-2007 AFP
Bush is now presenting the FTA to Congress as the main US policy tool to halt the influence of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
Letter from Colombian unions to US Congress
28-Nov-2007 Mingas
In the framework of the debate in the respective congresses around the ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between Colombia and the United States, the Administration of Alvaro Uribe Vélez has spread the idea in governmental circles in the United States that the Colombian union movement is divided and that "a majority" sector supports the TLC. In this document, we will demonstrate that this idea does not reflect the reality of the Colombian union movement.
Free trade with Colombia is the wrong deal with the wrong country
28-Nov-2007 Embassy
Not even the fact that the United Nations has called Colombia the worst humanitarian disaster in the Western hemisphere because of targeted killings of civilians by that country’s security forces that have risen sharply in the last five years, seems to matter as the Canada-Colombia FTA negotiations move forward at break-neck speed.
Not the time for a Canada/Colombia trade deal - Colombian bishop
22-Nov-2007 CCIC Website
A Methodist Bishop from Colombia says the Canadian government is misguided to argue that a trade deal between Canada and Colombia will help democracy and human rights and bring economic prosperity to his country.