US and Colombia sign trade deal

[Ghelp]

US and Colombia sign trade deal

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42347000/jpg/_42347122_colombiatradesign_ap.jpg The trade deal was signed after two year's of negotiations

The Bush administration has signed a multi-billion dollar free trade agreement with Colombia.
The pact comes despite warnings from Congress - which is now controlled by the opposition Democratic Party - that it has deep reservations over the deal.
Colombia's finance minister said the move would benefit Colombia's economy and its efforts to improve security.
The deal is America's biggest in the Western Hemisphere since 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
However, the deal has yet to win Congressional approval.
Agreements with Peru and Vietnam are awaiting similar approval, while US trade officials are trying to negotiate trade deals with countries including Malaysia and South Korea.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gifhttp://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/start_quote_rb.gif The agreement will deepen and strengthen our trade ties by providing new opportunities for US businesses http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/v3/end_quote_rb.gif


John Veroneau, US Deputy Trade Representative


Pressure for the agreements to be approved is mounting, as US President George W Bush's special "fast-track" authority to negotiate trade deals expires next year.
After 30 June 2007, the US Congress will once more have the right to change or veto any agreement that Mr Bush signs.
Criticism
Congress has voiced objections to the trade pact with Colombia as it fails to protect internationally agreed worker rights such as the abolition of child labour, protection against discrimination and freedom to join a union.
Opponents of the Bush administration also claim that such deals do little to protect US companies from unfair trade practices.
"The agreement will deepen and strengthen our trade ties by providing new opportunities for US businesses, manufacturers, farmers and ranchers to export their goods and services to one of Latin America's most robust economies," deputy trade representative John Veroneau said.
Once agreed, it is expected to make more than 80% of US consumer and industrial exports to Colombia duty free. Trade between the two countries reached $14.3bn ($11bn) last year. "The Free Trade Agreement will create permanent commercial channels so that our products could compete in the US market, therefore creating more revenue and jobs for millions of Colombians," Colombia's finance minister Jorge Humberto Botero added. Mr Botero also said the pact would "be a great tool" in the US-backed fight against terrorism and drug-trafficking

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6175168.stm

[LaoSexMachine]

Doubt this will make 8 ball any cheaper.

[Ghelp]

What do you mean?

Some photos of the protesting because of the Free Trade Agreement.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061109/capt.add204a2baf14008b351ba5806ac4cee.colombia_protest_bog102.jpg

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061109/capt.27bd5ff4587346829c83cdba7d1cd0ff.colombia_protest_bog101.jpg

Others were pretty bad like flag burning.I will not post it just a bunch of punks.

[LaoSexMachine]

"Chi chi, grab the yayo"

[Ghelp]

Oh I see.My mistake.That is illegal in the United States if I recall.But still the largest consumer country.




Another interesting article I found.



http://www.state.gov/cms_images/2004-11-22_bush_uribe.jpg
U.S., Colombia sign trade deal

WASHINGTON - The United States and Colombia signed an agreement Wednesday meant to knock down trade barriers for U.S. businesses and bolster a South American ally that has been battling drug traffickers and guerrillas.



With trade-wary Democrats soon to control Congress, however, prospects appear dim for ratification — and for other trade liberalization deals as well.
President Bush (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=President+Bush) is seeking congressional approval for trade pacts with Colombia, Peru and Vietnam, and U.S. officials are negotiating agreements with South Korea (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=South+Korea), Malaysia and others. These efforts are crucial, Bush argues, if U.S. companies are to compete with their foreign counterparts.
Democrats, who will come to power when a new Congress begins Jan. 4, contend the deals often favor foreign competitors, and they accuse the Bush administration of doing too little to protect Americans from unfair foreign trade practices.
In a letter to the administration, several congressional Democrats said the Colombia deal does not protect workers' rights.
Bush rejected Democratic objections during a recent trip to Asia.
"We hear voices calling for us to retreat from the world and close our doors to these opportunities," Bush said in a speech in Singapore, which has a free trade agreement. "These are the old temptations of isolationism and protectionism, and America must reject them."
The U.S. trade representative's office said the deal with Colombia, if approved, would make more than 80 percent of U.S. consumer and industrial exports to Colombia free of duties and improve two-way trade that reached $14.3 billion last year.
When Colombian President Alvaro Uribe visited Congress this month looking to secure backing for the agreement, Democrats bluntly told him its prospects were sinking.
The deal would be the United States' biggest in the Western Hemisphere since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994. Democrats point to claims by the International Labor Organization that Colombia is the world's deadliest country for labor organizers, with more than 1,200 cases of murder in recent years.
Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said success for Bush's trade agenda hinges largely on the ability of international negotiators to rekindle stalled World Trade Organization (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=World+Trade+Organization) talks aimed at settling a global trade liberalization deal.
"If that occurs and there's the promise of a big, multilateral trade deal, then the president will have a strong rationale of going to the Congress and asking for a renewal of trade promotion authority. Without that, there will be no major trade agreements following up on those that have already been signed," Schott said.
The soon-to-expire trade promotion authority, or "fast track" trade legislation, allows Congress to ratify or reject, but not modify, trade deals negotiated by the White House. Democrats are unlikely to renew the legislation, and that would make it much more difficult for any treaty to gain congressional approval in the United States, the world's largest trading nation.

[Ghelp]

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061122/capt.418b65792c0e4751bcf7c9726bf83287.us_colombia_trade__dclj102.jpg

Ambassador John K. Veroneau, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, left, and Colombian Minister of Trade , Industry and Tourism, Jorge Humberto Botero, shake hands after signing a U.S.-Colombian Trade Agreement in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2006. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)