Powerful House Democrats Point to Colombia FTA as Proof That US Doesn't Enforce on Labor

Powerful House Democrats -- including the Trade Subcommittee chairman, the majority leader and working group member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn. -- are explicitly linking failures to enforce labor provisions in the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement and weak enforcement tools in the new NAFTA. In a letter sent to the U.S. trade representative and the labor secretary on June 27, the Colombia Monitoring Group wrote, "The situation in Colombia highlights the systemic problems we face in enforcing our trade agreements across the board. In the face of long-standing and known problems, this Administration has demonstrated no urgency in resolving them...."

The letter says that the AFL-CIO and Colombia labor unions filed a petition about violations more than three years ago, saying that Colombia doesn't follow its own labor laws, and is not protecting the right to collectively bargain. The letter says that violence against union and civil society leaders continues to be a problem. It says that Colombia is not following an action plan on inspections and levying fines for companies with violations.

The USTR has pointed to recent successful consultations with Peru to enforce an environmental provision in that FTA (see 1904090071). This letter suggests if he wants to build good faith with Democrats crucial to ratifying the new NAFTA, he might want to bring more pressure on Colombia.

The letter asks for "new and creative enforcement mechanisms," but does not say what that might entail. The AFL-CIO, which says the new NAFTA needs to end the ability of countries to block state-to-state dispute panels, also wants unions to be able to bring cases themselves, instead of having to wait for governments to prosecute their complaints.