Politics of delay on Colombia pact
Politico | July 6, 2009
Politics of delay on Colombia pact
By: Victoria McGrane
President Barack Obama keeps punting on the touchy issue of free trade — and it’s driving both opponents and supporters just a little bit crazy.
The mixed message on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement is a case in point.
Rep. Michael Michaud (D-Maine), a leading congressional critic of the deal, praised Obama for refusing to make any trade promises to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe during a recent Washington visit but slammed the president for saying that the country has made progress on reining in violence.
“President Obama’s comment that the assassination rate is declining is contradicted by the findings of the House Labor and Education Committee, which found unionist assassination grew in 2008 relative to 2007,” said Michaud, one of a number of Democrats who have been frustrated by how open Obama has been to trade deals.
At the same time, pro-trade folks are baffled and disappointed.
They are upset about the lack of progress on the trade deal, despite promises the president made months ago that the administration would work through outstanding issues on the trade pact.
“It’s turning out to be a most curious trade policy. We’re at a time with exceedingly high unemployment, and you would think that the top priority would be to increase U.S. exports by opening foreign markets. And that’s clearly not the case,” said Bill Lane, Washington director of governmental affairs for Caterpillar Inc.
Meanwhile, the Colombian government is trying a whole new tactic in winning over Washington: trying to create a kinder, gentler image of the Latin American country. The Colombian government has launched a PR offensive entitled “Discover Colombia Through Its Heart,” a campaign that will bring seven 13-foot-tall heart sculptures to Union Station in Washington on Sept. 4. Each sculpture will feature information about the country — such as its music or its people. An additional forty 8-foot-tall sculptures will be displayed around Washington.
But it will probably take more than a public art display to spur some serious trade diplomacy.
The Obama administration seems to have settled on a policy of delay on the Colombia pact and the trade deal with Panama, despite sending strong signals during the Summit of the Americas in April that it wanted to move forward on both deals.
Obama’s remarks after meeting with Uribe on June 29 were essentially what he said about Panama in April. And that means the administration hasn’t spent much time crafting the benchmarks and other changes to the deal that it was supposed to be working on, business lobbyists say.
“I have instructed Ambassador [Ron] Kirk, our United States trade representative, to begin working closely with President Uribe’s team on how we can proceed on a free trade agreement,” Obama said. “There are obvious difficulties involved in the process, and there remains work to do, but I’m confident that, ultimately, we can strike a deal that is good for the people of Colombia and good for the people of the United States.”
But the reality is there has been little action — frustrating all sides.
“I don’t think the ball has moved forward an inch” since the summit, concluded Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council and undersecretary of commerce for export administration in the Clinton administration.
Business leaders have unsuccessfully argued with the administration that it’s tactically smarter to tackle the trade agreements now, rather than later.
“Why they think that it will be a lighter lift later baffles me. It won’t be a lighter lift; it’ll be a heavier lift. It’s going to be more complicated to do it later,” Reinsch said, because opponents continue to build opposition. “But they don’t seem to get that.”
Trade lobbyists also contend that there’s a compelling economic argument for Obama to pull the trigger now.
“The sooner the administration makes exports a priority, the better,” said Caterpillar’s Lane, arguing that central Illinois — Obama’s home state — would be a top beneficiary of the Colombia and Panama pacts.
Caterpillar, which is headquartered in Peoria, Ill., exports more to Colombia than any European nation, and the company would sell more of its earth-moving machines to Panama — which is about to undertake a major expansion of the Panama Canal — if the tariffs targeted by that trade pact were slashed.
Kirk, who also met with Colombian officials last week, said, “We should continue working, that it’s not easy but things can be done and will be done.” And Luis Guillermo Plata, the Colombian minister of trade, industry and tourism, told POLITICO: “We’re working with [Kirk] and his team, and we feel optimistic about it.”
But in this economy, Democrats from industrial areas want nothing to do with free trade.
“The Uribe administration has not shown sufficient political will to end extrajudicial killings, dismantle and prosecute the paramilitary groups suspected of killing union leaders, prosecute the intellectual authors of such crimes, enforce rules to curb labor subcontracting schemes and substantially strengthen existing labor laws,” read the letter, sent by Michaud and Reps. Diane Watson (D-Calif.) and Phil Hare (D-Ill.).
“I believe it is critically important that President Obama does what his predecessor failed to do: demand that President Uribe put an end to the violence against trade unionists in Colombia,” Hare said. “Then and only then should the United States even consider entering into a free trade agreement with that nation.”
Plata said he believes misperception has “a lot” to do with the continued resistance to the Colombian free trade agreement in Washington — and that’s part of the goal of the PR campaign.
The Colombian government has tried to combat its negative image by hosting numerous congressional delegation visits to the country. But since they can’t get every single member there — not to mention their constituents — the government envisioned its hearts campaign as a way to bring a little bit of Colombia to the United States.
After their D.C. tour, the hearts will travel to New York and Los Angeles.
“The hearts symbolize the passion of Colombia’s citizens and how hard they’re working to improve their country,” Plata said.
And the country has made strides since Uribe was first elected in 2002, its supporters say. Since then, the poverty rate has fallen, while tourism and economic growth has risen. The country’s homicide rate is now lower than that of Washington, D.C., Plata said.
Whether any of this changes the hearts and minds of the anti-free-trade crowd remains to be seen.
“The truth is that realities have changed dramatically in Colombia, not only from the violence and security perspective, but in terms of more Colombians living a better life, a more dignified life,” Plata said.
While the hearts campaign is not specifically a way to lobby for the stalled trade agreement, he said, “improving the image of Colombia has to result in more tourism, more trade and more investment.”
