Colombia not giving up on trade deal

Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón did not have much time to spare last week.

In a two-day visit to the U.S., Santos gave 10 interviews with the press, discussed investment in Colombia with the Council of Americas and headlined an event with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

{mosads}Santos’s busy visit is the latest evidence that his government is not giving up on convincing Congress to approve a trade agreement with Colombia, despite actions by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that would seem to put the deal in a deep freeze.

The Colombian vice president said his government was shocked by Pelosi’s decision to change House rules to avoid a vote on the Colombia deal two weeks ago.

“We are concerned but, to tell the truth, we are dumbfounded. We are like, ‘Wow, what happened?’ … You look at it and Colombia should have a free trade agreement,” the vice president said in an interview.

The Pelosi move means the odds are heavy that there will be no vote on Colombia’s trade deal this year, but Santos said his country nonetheless will continue its lobbying efforts by meeting with lawmakers and administration figures and organizing events meant to highlight the importance of the agreement to the Washington press.

“You have to be respectful of politics and the decision-making process in the U.S. We just have to keep pushing,” Santos said.

On Wednesday, Colombia’s embassy hosts an event for Colombia’s flower industry — a “perfect example of the benefits of two-way trade” that the embassy said creates jobs in both countries. The U.S. gives duty-free treatment to Colombian flowers under a preference program instituted years ago to help combat drug production in that country.

On Friday, Colombia’s ambassador will lead a discussion on the trade deal at a press lunch hosted by the National Foreign Trade Council .

The Colombian government has also retained leading firms on K Street, such as the Glover Park Group and Johnson , Madigan, Peck, Boland & Stewart . It canceled its contract with Burson-Marsteller after the firm’s president and CEO as well as then-chief strategist for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) presidential campaign, Mark Penn, called it an “error in judgment” to meet and discuss the agreement with the Colombian ambassador. Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) oppose the trade deal.  

Santos and other Colombian officials have emphasized that they retain good relations with both Republicans and Democrats, and have reserved their anger for U.S. labor unions, including the AFL-CIO and the Teamsters .

Labor’s opposition to the deal is rooted in arguments that Colombia has not done enough to stop murders of trade unionists in its country. Twenty-six union workers in Colombia were killed in 2007, though this is down from 196 in 2002, the Speaker of Colombia’s House of Representatives argued in a recent letter to Pelosi.

Union officials in Washington say a pattern of intimidation against Colombian labor leaders still exists, while Santos said his government has stepped up its efforts in seeking convictions for those who go after trade unionists.

“They have picked an emotional issue, an issue that is being solved, but is being blatantly manipulated to try to hide their real intentions,” Santos said. He suggested the real motivation of U.S. unions is to defeat a trade deal after unsuccessfully lobbying against several trade agreements that became law.

“It’s interesting that they dismiss our concerns while our brothers and sisters continue to be killed there,” said Yvette Pena Lopes, legislative representatives for the Teamsters. “We appreciate [that] efforts have been made, but that does not make up for decades of violence.”

Unions are still working on the deal, too.

The AFL-CIO and other labor groups are working to bring trade unionists from Colombia to the U.S. this May to meet with the press and lawmakers. Labor activists also joined with human rights advocates last week to criticize the Colombian government.

Labor groups have placed ads in The Hill and other newspapers criticizing the agreement, and are working to place op-eds opposing the deal in local newspapers around the country.

“We’re looking for changes on the ground in Colombia, both with improvements in respect to violence and impunity and labor law reform,” said Thea Lee, policy director for the AFL-CIO.

Santos arrived in Washington after a trip to Europe, where he faced a barrage of questions from investors on the status of the trade deal. Those questions highlight why the deal is important to Colombia.

“It would create investors’ confidence in Colombia by providing security, by providing incentives,” said the vice president. “It is necessary to consolidate the economic gains that Colombia has made.”

Most Colombian exports to the U.S. already receive duty-free treatment under a trade preference program that must be renewed on a periodic basis. If the agreement passed, those preferences would become permanent, and Colombia could receive a higher investment grade from Wall Street, which could spur foreign direct investment in the country.

In making these arguments, Santos said Colombia must take care to keep up its pressure while not making any new enemies in Congress.

 “We have to walk a very thin line,” said Colombia’s vice president. “But we have got to keep the pressure going. We have to keep moving.”