Colombia moving forward on trade-deal requirements

Colombia also is moving another bill to establish criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for employers that undermine the right to organize and bargain collectively or threaten workers who exercise their labor rights.  The law includes a provision making it a crime to offer a collective pact to nonunion workers that has superior terms to those offered to union workers.

U.S. officials said the Colombian government has taken steps beyond the action plan, including signing the Victims and Land Restitution Law that compensates victims of violence and returns land to those displaced by the armed conflict and a tripartite agreement between government, labor and business in support of the action plan. 

Colombia also has accelerated the effective date from July 2013 to June 2011 of new legal provisions, including significant fines, to prohibit and sanction the misuse of cooperatives and other employment relationships that undermine workers’ rights.

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) called completion of the commitments “an important step forward showing Colombia’s progress reducing labor violence and strengthening labor rights.”  

Baucus reiterated his commitment to renewing and extending Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) and is eager to approve the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as soon as an agreement on TAA is reached. 

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) used the argument to argue for the administration to submit the Colombian agreement to Congress. 

“Colombia has again met its commitments, and it is time for the U.S. to meet its commitment by moving forward on our long-pending trade agreement with this critical ally,” he said. “I urge the administration to do its part and submit the Colombia trade agreement for Congressional consideration.  We cannot afford to delay any further.” 

The action plan, designed to strengthen the enforcement of labor rights, increase protection of labor activists from violence and increase the punishment for violence against union members., was announced by President Obama and President Juan Manuel Santos on April 7 in Washington. 

The three trade agreements are going through technical discussions between the Obama administration and Congress. But the White House has said it won’t submit the trade deals for approval until there’s an agreement on reauthorizing TAA, which helps workers displaced by trade. 

U.S. trade officials negotiated the plan to address labor concerns. All must be completed to move ahead on the U.S.-Colombia trade agreement. 

Several important requirements still remain, including a July 15 deadline for Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s Office to complete an analysis of prior union-advocate homicide cases. 

By Sept. 15, the Santos administration must present a formal request to the International Labor Organization (ILO) for cooperation, advice and technical assistance to help put the action plan into place. 

By the end of October, a 2012 budget is scheduled for approval that will providing funding for 100 additional labor inspectors with the hiring set for completion by Dec. 15. The plan calls for hiring 380 labor inspectors by 2014.