Promoting Trade Justice in the New Congress

February 12, 2007

Coordinator of the Colombia Network Enrique Daza with translator Raul Fernandez prepare for a workshop at a conference on promoting fair trade. Photo: K. McNeely/CWS

Trade justice advocates from around the United States gathered in Washington DC recently to strategize together on how best to promote fair trade in the new Congress.

Conference co-sponsors included, among others, the Alliance for Responsible Trade, Citizens Trade Campaign, Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Sierra Club, and the Interfaith Working Group on Trade and Investment, of which Church World Service is an active member.

Participants plan to call on Congress to dispense with fast-track Trade Promotion Authority and forge a new framework for more fair and just trade policies.

Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority, which allows the President of the United States to negotiate trade agreements that the Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster, will expire in July.

Before then, Congress may be asked to vote on several free trade agreements. Of greatest concern are the US-Peru, the US-Colombia and the US-Korea agreements. Though advocates look forward to working with many members of the 110th Congress who are significantly more fair trade oriented than any Congress in years, the pressure from the administration to pass these agreements will be great.

Under the current Trade Promotion Authority the Bush Administration negotiated a number of unpopular trade agreements including the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) which passed by only two votes in Congress last July.

Enrique Daza, Coordinator of the Colombia Network against the Free Trade Area of the Americas, urged people in the US not to settle for small fixes in labor and environmental chapters of the Colombia agreement. Colombian critics of the US free trade agenda see a number of problems with a variety of chapters including agriculture, investment, intellectual property and other issues that tie the fate of the country to neo-liberal economic reforms.

Of greatest concern to many Colombians are the proposed agricultural trade provisions. By eliminating tariffs and other barriers, US agricultural products will flood into Colombia. Small farmers, unable to compete with low US commodity prices, will have to give up farming food crops. They may change to crops like bananas or coffee. These crops are not grown in the United States, but because so many developing countries export them to the US, their prices are extremely low. Also, many Colombians do not find it viable to sell bananas to buy food from the US.

Many farmers, looking for a way to survive, may turn to planting coca plants which are used for cocaine production. In essence, the US-Colombia Free Trade agreement could lead to more cocaine production and more violence and instability for Colombian citizens. This is out of step with US – Colombia geo-political strategies. While the US State department pours money into Colombian drug eradication programs, the US Trade Representative could create a situation whereby Columbian farmers are forced to produce more illegal drugs to survive.

Stay in touch with advocacy efforts to make trade fair though the CWS Speak Out Action Network!