•  bogotÁ
• Friday, May 18, 2012
• Inter Press Service

The entry into force of Colombia’s free trade agreement with the United States was met by student protests and opposition from a segment of the business community, small farmers, and trade unionists.

The trade deal, signed in 2006 after two years of negotiations, went into effect Tuesday after a lengthy process of modification of Colombia’s domestic laws to bring them into compliance with the agreement.

In response to the protests Tuesday, the authorities closed down public universities, as well as bus stations in Bogotá.

The day was also marked by a bomb attack against the armoured car of Fernando Londoño, a former interior and justice minister of the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002- 2010), which killed two of his bodyguards and injured him as well as some 30 passers-by. Another car-bomb had earlier been deactivated.

But the Colombian government celebrated the start of the free trade agreement (FTA) signed by then presidents Uribe and George W. Bush (2001-2009). President Juan Manuel Santos said the accord signed with the United States, which is already Colombia’s main export market, would boost this country’s economic growth by nearly one percent a year and create 500,000 jobs.

The FTA, which will be implemented in stages, will gradually eliminate tariffs on virtually all products traded between the two countries. It also contains provisions that regulate investment, agriculture, industry, services, telecommunications, intellectual property, public procurement, and environmental, labour, sanitary and cultural questions.

But activists, students, farmers and other critics of the FTA say Colombia yielded in a number of areas, in exchange for nothing. To back up their arguments, they point out that President Barack Obama said the trade deal would help 'achieve my goal of doubling U.S. exports.'

'But (Obama) says little to nothing about increasing imports,' Enrique Daza, the head of theColombian Action Network Against Free Trade, told IPS. Last year, Colombia’s exports to the United States amounted to 21.7 billion dollars, or 38 percent of this country’s total sales abroad, while imports from the U.S. stood at 13.6 billion dollars - 25 percent of Colombia’s total imports.

© Inter Press Service (2012) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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