Seal the deal on Colombia trade pact
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This Los Angeles Times editorial picks up the issue of the free-trade pact between Colombia and the United States.
The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is once again a political football in Washington. Almost as soon as Barack Obama won the election, it came into play. Now it is being punted, fumbled, spiked and maybe even hurled in a desperate Hail Mary pass to Congress as its chief supporter, President Bush, prepares to leave office.
Resistance to the pact by labor unions and human rights organizations, both here and in Colombia, remains stiff. And with an incoming Democratic administration, the deal faces significant new obstacles. But the gamesmanship between Democrats and Republicans, unions and rights groups should not obscure one fact: The agreement is good for Colombia and good for the United States.
As Chris Kraul reported yesterday, during a state visit to Mexico, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe enlisted President Felipe Calderon’s support to lobby on Colombia’s behalf for the bilateral U.S. free-trade agreement.
President Bush has not given up hope either. But President-elect Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, says a trade bill won’t be on the Democrats’ agenda during the lame-duck congressional session kicking off Monday.
Click here for more about Colombia.
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City