MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Colombian president praises US congress for ratifying free trade agreement

Juan Manuel Santos addressed the country on national television

President Juan Manuel Santos praised US Congress ratification of a long-stalled free trade agreement with the United States and said it was a historic day for Colombian business and workers.

The ratification of the long-stalled deal “is an unmistakable sign that we are doing well, that we are going the right way. Today the world recognizes the new Colombia we are constructing and opens the door to us” said Santos in a televised speech to the nation.

Santos added that the decision of the US House of Representative and Senate made the day “historic for the relations between Colombia and the United States, a historic day for Colombia's insertion to the world and an historic day for the Colombian businessmen and workers.”

“Today ... with the approval of the FTA, President Obama has kept his word with the Colombian people” underlined Santos shortly after the US House voted 262-167 in favour followed by 66 to 33 in the Senate.

However US trade unions who have worked against a free trade pact with Colombia citing human rights and US jobs concerns, rejected the ratification.

“Historically, these agreements have closed American manufacturing facilities and cost American jobs,” said United Steel Workers International President Leo W. Gerard in a statement, adding that ”the problems with the Colombia FTA go far beyond the American jobs that will be lost. Colombia, with some 170,000 murders of human rights activists, unionists and religious leaders and in the last 15 years, remains, despite government claims to the contrary, the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist.”

Negotiations over the agreement, known in the US as the Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CPTA), began back in 2004 and were concluded in 2006.

The bill was sent to the Colombian Congress in late 2006 and was signed into law in July 2007. Colombia’s Constitutional Court completed a review and approved the agreement in 2008.

However, despite efforts from then President George Bush to push it through before the end of his term, Bush’s Democratic opponents blocked the bill citing concerns over Colombia’s human rights record.

Earlier this year, the US and Colombia agreed a Labour Action Plan to address concerns over assassinations, violence and intimidation against unionists and abuse of workers.

Juan Manuel Santos addressed the country on national television