As we go to print on 12 October the eyes of Colombia are set on the US congress, which is expected to ratify the 2006 bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) today; if Colombia’s expectations are met, President Barack Obama could sanction it as early as 13 or 14 October. However, the renewed impetus for the approval of the treaty in both countries begs the question of whether Colombia is ready for it to go into effect. According to Minister of Agriculture Juan Camilo Restrepo Salazar, the Andean nation isn’t ready for the implementation of the treaty; according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) neither are the mechanisms intended to address violence against trade union activists and leaders who are killed for their political activities on a regular basis.
Restrepo warned that the dairy and rice industries are not ready to cope with the influx that cheap subsidized products from the US could have on their sectors, saying that the government has to ensure that “the cold shower they are about to get doesn’t turn into pneumonia”. HRW pointed out in a recent public letter to Colombia’s attorney general, Viviane Morales Hoyos, that Colombia is still the country with the highest number of trade unionists killed per year in the world and that there are “severe shortcomings in the scope of the sub-unit’s [of prosecutors that focuses exclusively on crimes against trade unionists] work and the investigative methodology that it employs”. So far, Colombia has only convicted people responsible for only 10% of the 2,886 trade unionist killings recorded since 1986. Making matters worse, according to the local online publication La Silla Vacía, President Santos has yet to deliver on all the promises he made President Obama to get the FTA sent to congress [RA-11-05].
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Promise |
Action |
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Hire 100 new labour inspectors |
20 inspectors have been hired; 30 more will begin work in late October; and 50 will be hired in November |
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Set-up a phone line and internet complaints site to report labour law violations |
The line and website have been set up, but neither system works. |
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Penal code reform to sanction with penalties of up to 5 years employers who obstruct workers’ rights |
The reform was approved on 25 June but the maximum penalty is of two years; there is also a fine of between 100 and 200 minimum salaries. |
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Decree regulating article 63 of the Law of First Employment |
Decree was issued on 8 June. |
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Define the use of collective agreements to prevent unionisation as a crime. |
The reform was approved in June and establishes sentences of one to two years in prison. |
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Formal request to the WTO to strengthen its presence in Colombia |
A permanent World Trade Organisation (WTO) representative is yet to be named. |
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Reform the committee that appraises security risks for trade unionists. |
The decree was issued on 13 September – this responsibility now falls on a committee comprising the police, the ministry of interior’s human rights director, the ministry of defence and a delegate from each of the following offices: social action, the attorney general, the prosecutor and the national ombudsman. |
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Establishment of a trade union-private sector negotiating committee |
Decree was issued in June but has yet to be signed; in the event of a dispute, a committee has to be established within five days, it has up to 30 days to resolve the dispute and if it fails, the dispute goes to a labour tribunal. |
Source: La Silla Vacía – presentation is our own.
- US has to catch up
According to Michael McKinley, the US Ambassador to Colombia, the US has to catch up with the rest of the world with regards to the number of FTAs it has signed. “In Latin America there are 57 preferential trade agreements and a dozen more are being negotiated. In Asia [there are] 60, in the EU [European Union], 60 and the US only has 17”, he told the local daily El Tiempo in a recent interview.
