This week the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) released a report criticizing the 
Colombian government’s handling of murder investigations of trade union officials. The report focused on how Colombian prosecutors and judiciary routinely assign improper motives in murder investigations of hundreds of trade union victims. This is important in influencing the ongoing debate about the pending U.S. Colombia Free Trade Agreement now languishing in Congress.
As I have discussed in previous posts on this subject, opponents of the Colombia FTA believe that Colombia should not be granted free trade status until its government controls both the killing of trade unionists and establish a system of justice where murderers are brought to justice.
When prosecutors and the courts characterize the murder of a trade unionist as a crime of passion or a random act of violence, it diverts attention away from the very real process of destroying workers rights in that country.
Unionization in Colombia hovers around 1.5%, an astoundingly low numbers, even by U.S. standards. This is due, in large part, to a systematic process of extreme anti-union behavior by business, the government and the government’s proxy, the paramilitaries.
The Center for Trade Policy Studies, an arm of the conservative Cato Institute, summarizes the debate well, though from a skewed perspective. In their report, A U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement: Strengthening Democracy and Progress in Latin America, authors Daniel Griswold and Juan Carlos Hidalgo note:
Because U.S. tariffs are already low to non-existent on the large majority of imports from Colombia, the agreement should not arouse the opposition of domestic special interests. More than half of our $9.3 billion in imports from Colombia in 2006 were petroleum and coal. Another sixth of our imports from Colombia are agricultural products, with coffee beans and cut flowers dominating the trade. Apparel and shoes made up about 6 percent of our imports, amounting to less than half a billion dollars.
So then, why should American businesses even care if we have a free trade agreement in place?
I believe that there are several reasons. First, this agreement is a token of sorts to the Colombian government linked to the ongoing drug war in that country, which the U.S. government has pumped billions to support. In addition, Colombia is an important ally in the region where we have few friends.
Like U.S. policy elsewhere, the Bush Administration finds itself in bed with governments with poor governance practices – inadequate rule of law, corruption, and systematic violence against its people – but have no alternatives in terms of regional relationships. We see this situation repeated around the world throughout our recent history of foreign relations.
In addition, allowing the import of goods from Colombia in effect sanctions an extreme form of anti-union activity. The conditions for workers seeking to better themselves through collective bargaining are destroyed through hostile and corrupt legal processes combined with direct violence. America’s own intellectual paramilitaries, the Cato Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce among this group, see the direct benefit in allowing this sort of hostility to occur. What’s good for Colombia is good for America.
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