Colombia - Free trade agreement on back burner
Poder 360 | 21 August 2009
Colombia - Free trade agreement on back burner
Michael Shifter, Inter-American Dialogue vice-chairman, seconds Nobel laureate Paul Krugman’s warning
The Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, who recently visited Colomiba, had already said it: the free trade agreement between Colombia and the U.S. will remain on the back burner because President Barack Obama’s priority is passing healthcare reform. And today that sentiment was backed by Inter-American Dialogue vice-chairman Michael Shifter, who maintained that the four fronts demanding the North American leader’s attention are the problems of education, healthcare, immigration and energy, which will dominate the agenda for the rest of the year. Shifter, who spoke during the meeting of national businessman in Cali, said that signing the agreement could only be considered halfway through the coming year. Not having achieved greater advances despite lobbying in Congress has been a crucial issue for the Colombian government. Nevertheless, the opposition says that the agreement won’t result in greater benefits for Colombia and that, on the contrary, it will hurt some sectors.
