Administration wants to send trade pacts to Congress before recess
Miami Herald, USA
Administration wants to send trade pacts to Congress before recess
They are part of a comprehensive trade agenda that President Obama says will help create jobs for U.S. workers
By Mimi Whitefield
19 June 2011
The Obama administration hopes to send all three pending free trade agreements — Colombia, Panama, and Korea — to Congress before the August recess.
Initially, the plan had been to try for Congressional approval of the Korea trade pact first because it would have the greatest economic impact and then submit the Panama and Colombia accords later.
But Kevin Sullivan, the state department’s point man on economic policy in the Western Hemisphere, said in a recent interview that the plan is now to send all three agreements to Congress separately but over the next few months. Technical discussions on the trade pacts are now going on at the Congressional staff level.
“Now it seems like the stars are in alignment — it’s that important to us,’’ said Sullivan.
The administration, he said, wants to submit the agreements as part of a broader trade initiative that includes renewal of trade adjustment assistance as well as reinstatement of the Andean Trade Preferences Act, and the expired Generalized System of Preferences, which extends duty-free treatment to several thousand products imported into the United States from countries around the world.
The ATPA , which must be periodically renewed and expired Feb. 12, is especially important to South Florida because it allowed duty-free access of Andean products such as flowers from Colombia and Ecuador. Miami is the flower import capital of the nation, and local importers have had to pay duties since the eclipse of the ATPA..
S. Florida Support
Sullivan was in South Florida earlier this month to drum up support for the Obama trade initiative, which aims to double U.S. exports by 2014 in an effort to create more jobs for U.S. workers.
He said he found a receptive audience. “People are very excited to hear things are moving forward,’’ Sullivan said.
The South Florida Republican Congressional delegation has advocated quicker action on the trade pacts with Colombia and Panama, which were both negotiated several years ago.
But there have been sticking points for both agreements.
Labor unionists and human rights groups have complained that the Colombia agreement didn’t do enough to protect union leaders and labor activists against violence and threats in a country that is one of the most dangerous in the world for organized labor.
In April, the U.S. and Colombia agreed on a plan to address such concerns with specific deadlines for meeting benchmarks.
Last week, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced that Colombia had met all the milestones it needed to complete by a June 15 deadline.
They include a law setting criminal penalties, including jail time, for employers who undermine the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively or who threaten workers’ labor rights, improvement of systems for citizens to file labor-related complaints, and progress toward hiring 100 new labor inspectors.
A series of other deadlines exist from now through 2014 when Colombia has committed to hiring an additional 380 labor inspectors.
But the AFL-CIO is still taking the position that the action plan falls “far short of achieving adherence to international labor standards.’’ Last year, the AFL-CIO pointed out, 51 trade unionists were assassinated in Colombia.
Last week Colombian unionists were in Washington and met with members of Congress and U.S. unionists and their leaders.
Level playing field
But the Obama administration insists it has taken the necessary steps to make sure all the pending agreements offer a level playing field for U.S. workers, as well as labor rights protections.
In Panama, Sullivan said, progress also has been made toward adequate legal protection for labor unions, and a tax information exchange agreement, which had been an area of contention, was signed into law in Panama in April.
‘[The president] did that [leveled the playing field] with the U.S.-South Korea trade agreement by negotiating further steps to open South Korea’s auto market,’’ said Kirk. “He did that with the U.S.-Panama trade agreement by negotiating additional progress on labor rights and tax transparency. And he did that with the U.S. Colombia trade agreement through the negotiation of the action plan.’’
