Colombia says NO to US free trade
Prensa Latina, Cuba
Colombia Says NO to US Free Trade
13 January 2006
Bogota. The Colombian government declared Friday, based on a Cundinamarca
Administration Court decision, it will not sign the Free Trade Agreement
with the United States.
The Colombian Action Network opposing Free Trade and the Free Trade Area
of the Americas (RECALCA, in Spanish) noted that this court action was one
of its legal strategies against the FTA.
Members of the judicial court reached a decision, as a preventive measure,
and notified the president and the foreign minister December 15 they were
forbidden to sign the FTA. RECALCA also points out the president should
not sign an FTA with aspects affecting Colombian rights.
According to the judicial order, Colombian rights violated relate to
agricultural issues, particularly the threat of an increase of US exports
like wheat, corn, rice, chicken parts, among others.
RECALCA made it clear that the judicial order to not sign the FTA is
binding on the president and his subordinates, and to disobey would be as
dangerous as to ignore a Constitutional Court decision.
According to the NGO, the preventive decision is in force and can only be
revoked by this court.
