Canada just approved Free Trade with Colombia and as their president Harper said "we are anxious to sell our products before the Americans". Europe is in talks to sign another trade deal. What its wrong with congress? Approved the Trade deal already! before its too late and our competitors start selling their products!

PingBack from http://bill-clinton.bestpoliticalblogs.co.uk/2008/11/17/why-it-matters-the-colombian-trade-disconnect/

Bush and Uribe are great excellent close friends. But what an Irony ! ... Uribe will go into History as a GREAT STATESMAN !! ... The pacifier of a country that was in total anarchy and chaos. Now Colombia is organized and many planes of extradited narcos fly to the USA. Those are the guys that kill Trade Unionists, not Uribe.

You can not fix hell in five minutes and the popularity of Uribe is the Greatest of all Presidents, sometimes 90% or more, after many military victories. Thanks to the USA for frienship and support !!

You are going to throw the baby instead of the dirty water of the bath.

The fact is that the Bush Administration has an excellent record in Africa and Latin America. Please Everybody Be honest and acknowledge that the Bush Government has excellent relations with Africa and Latin America and that there are no grave mistakes or blunders. Excellent Diplomacy.

McCain spoke of the Colombian Trade Agreement as a NO BRAINER in a debate with Obama. He is right.

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Vicente Duque

If this trade deal is so lopsided in the interest of the US, why would Columbia what it?

It cannot just be tariffs on imported US goods as Columbia can reduce those unilaterally if they think it is hurting their economy.  The real reason is that US multinationals are running out of countries with cheap labor. Columbia has a big population that can be used.  I think this agreement is about more offshoring than anything else.

THE POWER OF IGNORANCE AND FANATISM

Some unknown facts may be these :

People around the world wrongly believe that the Colombian Government is a dictatorship, that there is no free press. That there is no Independent Judiciary or Juridical System, That there is no Supreme Court or other independent courts, where you can take your Juridical Battles,

People believe that there are no independent Judges, District Attorneys, Independent Criminal or Investigative Police.

People believe that there are no independent journalists that can criticize or attack the government, and that all political and military forces are corrupt and sold to Narcos.

Nothing can be more removed from Truth, and if you compare Colombia with the neighbors, in the matter of political freedoms and separation of powers, then the comparison is very and extremely favorable to Colombia.

People in Europe and the States wrongly believe that the Almost Defeated Guerrillas are Freedom Fighters, that have nothing to do with Narco Drugs, that do not use Terrorism, Bombs, Violence.

That the guerrillas do not kill children, women and old folks, and that they do not kidnap thousands of people for money. That they do not plant the fields with hidden bombs, booby traps, and underground explosives that kill and maim peasant children everyday.

Where are any proofs against President Uribe ???. Many of his supporters are in jail or have been extradited to the USA. He won a Civil War and Pacified a Country in Anarchy and Chaos.

Use all those false assumptions  in order to take Political International Decisions, Trade Decisions or whatever.

And that is the road to degradation of Foreign Policy.

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Vicente Duque

This guy is trying to talk you into supporting FTA. The corporate media has always loved "free-trade" because corporations/Wall Street make millions while it destroys jobs in the U.S. and keeps gangster regimes like Columbia in power (This guy probably loved NAFTA too.)

And then there's the Human Rights issue. He says:

"The Democrats and their sponsors alleged no dearth of motives for killing the deal. First, they cited Bogotá’s spotty record on human rights, saying that Colombian trade unionists especially were in peril."

"Spotty"?!? In fact, Columbia, for many years has been the worst human rights violator in the western hemisphere. The army is heavily involved with the drug cartels and Uribe, the president has been implicated too. Funny that we can't trade with Cuba because because we're so sensitive about its human rights record but we can have trade deals with Columbia whose human rights record on that issue is much worse.

This guy is trying to con you. Don't fall for it.

President Alvaro Uribe does not condone or allow murders. He is fighting against those assassins.

No nation extradites so many criminals to the U. S.  .... Those criminal narcos are the same guys responsible for killing trade unionists.

The Government of Colombia enjoys big support from the population. In many indepent polls Uribe scores many times over 80% and sometimes 90% when there are big military victories like killing Raul Reyes who was the head of the guerrillas. Or when the Helicpter Operation returned the hostages by means of deception, without firing a single shot.

From the point of view of economics, mathematics, statistics or computer simulations, the position of the Democrats is totally absurd, and can be understood as an electoral trick to prod Unions to vote for Obama.

If there is something in which economists agree it is the benefits of Free Trade.

At this moment Colombian products enter the U. S. without paying taxes or tariffs, The Trade agreement does not change that. Only American products will enter Colombia tax free.

No American jobs are going to be lost with this treaty. It is the opposite.

Moralism is a Very Beautiful Thing but it is awful when it is based on false assumptions like making the Colombian Government responsible for deaths that it is trying to avoid.

Moralism in this case is impractical and anti pragmatic.

And Colombia is not so microscopic as the public believes. It is the first net importer of American Agriculture. McCain explained that in a debate with Obama. McCain called this treaty a "NO BRAINER".

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Vicente Duque

Actually, labor killings are up this year compared to last. There are more people who have been pushed from their homes due to violence and a great deal of paramilitary activities continues. I understand that among the chattering class these things are only of rhetorical value. But in the real world, these are things that we ought to work with Colombia to improve on the way to getting a fair trade deal done that places high expectations on Colombia to protect their citizens from violence and violations of their human rights.