Top US labour group wary of bipartisan trade deal

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Top US labour group wary of bipartisan trade deal
Sat 12 May 2007, 7:19 GMT

By Doug Palmer

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The largest U.S. labor group reacted cautiously on Friday to a deal between the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress to strengthen labor and environmental protections in free trade agreements, while most business groups welcomed it.

The agreement requires the Bush administration to modify pending free trade pacts with Peru, Panama, Colombia and South Korea to include an enforceable obligation to abide by international labor and environmental standards.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said he commended U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, for making substantial progress toward "improving workers' rights and environmental standards in the Peru and Panama Free Trade Agreements."

But he repeated the group's strong opposition to trade deals with Colombia and South Korea, which senior Democrats have said face additional obstacles in Congress. Sweeney also expressed doubt about the Bush administration's willingness to enforce the labor and environmental provisions.



Read more: http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN229898.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Colombia is pure hell for union workers. No wonder US unions question

the wisdom of _Bush's trade agreement:

Colombia remains deadliest country for trade union leaders

AFL-CIO Solidarity Center reports more than 4,000 trade unions murdered since the mid-1980s.

Washington (27 June 2006) - Colombia remains the deadliest place on earth for trade unionists, says a new report by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center.

Entitled Justice for All- The Struggle for Workers Rights in Colombia, the report provides extensive background and updated information but sums up the situation in a single chilling passage:

"Since the mid-1980s, approximately 4,000 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia, more than 2,000 of them since 1991," the report says.

"More trade unionists are killed each year in Colombia than in the rest of the world combined. In October 2005, the ICFTU reported that Colombia was once again the 'deadliest country for trade unionists.'"

According to ENS (Escuela Nacional Sindical), 70 trade unionists were killed in 2005 while 260 received death threats, 56 were arbitrarily detained, seven survived attacks in which explosives or firearms were used, six were kidnapped, and three disappeared. Thirty-four trade unionists were murdered in 2004, mostly in connection with collective bargaining disputes or strikes.

http://www.nupge.ca/news_2006/n27jn06b.htm

[sadiesworld]

2. I think Reuters may be painting the pig's lips here.

There's some good info in GD and on David Sirota's blog about the true nature of this piece of crap.

[Demeter]

3. The Washington Post Is All For It

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102040.html?referrer=email

Bipartisan Trade
For now, Democrats are the main beneficiaries of a deal with the Bush administration's trade negotiator.

Saturday, May 12, 2007; A14



SO OFTEN accused of inflexibility, the Bush administration made a big stretch to strike a deal with congressional Democrats on trade this week. The Democrats walked away with an achievement they and their labor union allies have been seeking for at least 15 years: direct incorporation of enforceable labor and environmental rules into free-trade agreements signed by the United States. Future accords will contain United Nations labor principles governing such issues as unions' right to organize and the prohibition of forced labor. The administration also agreed to loosen patent protections on drugs and to guarantee that foreign companies could be blocked from operating U.S. ports.

All this might be worthwhile if administration trade negotiators obtained what they initially were seeking from the Democrats -- the votes to pass four pending bilateral free-trade accords and the extension of President Bush's trade negotiating authority, without which there will be no chance of completing the multilateral trade negotiations known as the Doha round. So far, they look to be well short of that. The Democrats are talking favorably about the passage of only the two smallest trade deals, with Peru and Panama, whose combined trade with the United States in 2005 amounted to less than $10 billion. They are still withholding support for the most important pacts, in political and economic terms: with Colombia, a staunch ally of the United States and a regional rival of Venezuela that has become a target for the left; and with South Korea, the only one of the four whose exports amount to more than a rounding error in U.S. accounts.

As for Doha -- the only accord that would truly advance the cause of free trade, and help the U.S. and global economies -- the Democrats promise only to think about it. "It depends on how we work all that out," said Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, at a news conference Thursday. That's a way of saying that still more administration concessions will be needed if there is to be any hope of extending the trade negotiating authority before its expiration at the end of June.

The administration's trade representative, Susan C. Schwab, is an optimist: She's convinced that this week's deal has established a foundation for bipartisan collaboration on trade that will carry over into discussions on Colombia, South Korea and Doha. Certainly it's refreshing to see anyone in the Bush administration make such a great effort to find common ground with congressional Democrats. We hope the reward for her initiative will be more than $10 billion in additional free trade.