Colombian Network against Free Trade and the FTAA  June 2006

Over three months ago, the government announced victoriously and with great pomp, the end of negotiations for the FTA with the U.S.  During the elections, the Uribe government eluded debate on the theme of the FTA.  After the elections, potato, chicken, sugar and rice farmers realized they had fallen for the government's deception.  The government had told them one thing, and the U.S. texts said something very different.

The potato farmers, for example, denounced that contrary to the gradual (10-15 year) reduction in the barriers to entry they were promised, the government had agreed to an immediate opening and that sanitary restrictions would be lifted, allowing free entry.  Potato farmers consider this to be a huge deception, which the minister announced nearly four months after the close of the negotiations (and of course after the elections).   It is important to underscore that 90,000 families are dependent on this crop. 

When it became evident that there was a discrepancy in the texts, Uribe sent the head negotiators to resolve the problem, but after a week of attempts, they returned with empty hands, and on May 16^th the U.S. suspended the meetings without defining a date for a new meeting. 

The issue is that the U.S. wants the advantage of securing entry to markets for sugar, rice, chicken and also wants immediate entry into Colombia for beef, chicken hind quarters and old chickens without limit, and outside the quota.  Their argument is that true hind quarters have bones in them and they are referring to hind quarters without bones.  If Colombia does not agree to these wishes by the U.S., the ‘negotiation' will never come to a conclusion. 

The public has yet to realize the importance of this issue:  the government claimed that negotiations had ended satisfactorily and today they are again negotiating crucial themes.  It was originally said that everything was clear, and later Minister Botero had to acknowledge that ‘there were some ambiguous spaces' and promising to make some calls on the ‘red phone.'  

On June 7^th, the Colombian negotiating team was ready to return to Washington, but the trip was suspended because the USTR considered the phytosanitary regulations which Colombia is asking for related to Avian Flu, and Mad Cow issues to be excessive.  The government is now saying that these themes will be addressed when Uribe visits Bush in an upcoming visit.  Imagine the U.S. President, who barely knows where Colombia is, negotiating in an hour long meeting with Uribe the fine details of sanitary control.  They really are making fools of public opinion.

What has become clear once again is the systematic deception on the part of the Uribe government.  He has managed to neutralize opposition from important sectors by promising them things which he could not deliver.  Now the government needs to admit that they have created a huge problem for chicken farmers, but instead, they continue to negotiating with them to ‘slip them the pill.'  The demand by potato farmers to have potatoes excluded from the negotiations arrived very late.

We are faced with a new round, and we have to get ready.  During the process ahead, the United States will demand new concessions as a condition for moving forward towards the signing, approval and ratification process. 

The Colombian government has already said yes to the extortion, and has no capacity whatsoever get out of it.  Additionally, they are under the close scrutiny of Washington, regarding the recent scandalous assassinations by Military Forces, the inability of the fumigations to control coca cultivation and the generalized increase in violence. 

Uribe is trying to co-opt the Liberal Party and flirt with Cesar Gaviria; attempting to neutralize the unions, assuring them that the office of the ILO does not exist to closely track violations of labor rights, but rather to reward the good labor conditions which exist.  He offers to broaden the space for generic medicines, to demonstrate to the national pharmaceutical industry that they there are internal instruments which he can use to compensate them.  It is still a long time before an FTA will take affect, and it could be detained at any stage if the Colombian population becomes aware of the tremendous fraud which this signifies.