[R-G] Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Ratified

[Anthony Fenton]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 163 ... December 2, 2008
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Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Ratified
Todd Gordon

Not a government to fail to live up to its reactionary commitments,  
the Tories signed Canada's free trade agreement with Colombia on  
November 21st. The signing is the culmination of the Tory government's  
aggressive campaign to reach a trade deal with the human-rights  
troubled Andean country. Prime Minister Harper first announced his  
government's intention to get a deal with Colombia during his state  
visit there in July, 2007. Sixteen months and three high-level cabinet- 
minister visits later, andvoila!, mission accomplished.

The Tories actually used the occasion of the recent Asia Pacific  
Economic Cooperation (APEC) meetings in Lima, Peru to sign the  
agreement. The signing of the trade deal at an international meeting  
that was dominated by discussions of what will likely be the worst  
global financial crisis since the Great Depression speaks volumes  
about the Tory government and its neoliberal attitude to the economic  
meltdown: more, not less, free markets is the proper medicine to get  
us through our economic sickness (this was confirmed a week later when  
Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty, followed his economic update by  
announcing no new spending or economic stimulus was planned). Harper  
arrogantly proclaimed in Lima: "In a time of Global economic  
instability free trade is more important than ever."

The deal is part of a major rapprochement with Colombia, and as I've  
argued previously is actually part of a broader Canadian geo-strategic  
agenda in the Andean region. But rapprochement in general, and this  
trade deal in particular, come at a considerable human rights cost.  
Harper consistently downplays the scale of the human rights disaster  
in Colombia, and erroneously suggests that Colombian President, Alvaro  
Uribe, is part of the solution rather than the problem. "While there  
is no denying that Colombians continue to live with serious security  
challenges," Harper blithely stated in Lima, "the improvements we have  
seen over the last several years gives us much reason for optimism."

A Deteriorating Human Rights Situation
Harper's faith in Uribe is about as well warranted as his faith in  
free markets; and like his faith in free markets, it's based on  
ignoring all the evidence to the contrary. In actual fact, the human  
rights situation in Colombia is deteriorating. According to the  
International Centre for Trade Union Rights, by September, 2008 there  
had already been 40 unionists assassinated in Colombia, compared to 38  
over the same period the year before. Less than a week after Canada  
concluded its trade negotiations on June, 7 of this year, union  
member, Favier Dario Pelaez Castaño, was murdered. Death threats,  
illegal arrests and armed attacks have also increased "substantially"  
from the year before.

The majority of these attacks on union activists are perpetrated by  
the various right wing paramilitary groups roaming Colombia. This  
allows trade deal apologists, to the extent they acknowledge human  
rights atrocities against unionists occurring in the country, to  
suggest that the Colombian government bears no responsibility.  
However, as a number of commentators have shown, paramilitaries have  
close ties to the Colombian military, and often operate with the  
military's at least tacit support. On top of this, the Uribe  
government has been embroiled in a scandal for several months now, in  
which the ties to paramilitaries of dozens of his political allies  
have been exposed.

Indigenous peoples, whose land in large swaths of the country is much- 
coveted by Canadian oil and gas and mining companies for its  
subsurface riches, have also suffered greatly under the Uribe regime.  
The Centre for Indigenous Cooperation (CECOIN) reports that not only  
did the number of violations against indigenous communities increase  
in the first four years of Uribe's government, but those acts  
attributable to government security forces increased as well. From  
1998-2002 there were 298 recorded cases of human rights violations  
against indigenous peoples committed by government forces. From  
2002-2006, the years of Uribe's first term, there were 672 – a  
significant increase. State-sponsored assassinations of indigenous  
activists also increased from 26 between 1998-2002 to 62 between  
2002-2006.

A little over a month before the signing of the trade deal in Lima, a  
mass protest of indigenous groups in Cauca, demanding the government  
fulfill previously-made promises around land, education and health,  
was met with a massive show of force by state security forces. The  
security forces attacked the protest, injuring more than fifty  
indigenous activists and killing one. That was the 11th indigenous  
person killed in Colombia in the three weeks leading up to and  
including the protests in Cauca. The military push into indigenous  
communities in Cauca has increased under Uribe, as the region has  
untapped (by foreign companies, that is) natural resources. Security  
forces often accuse indigenous activists of being guerrillas, and  
justify their killings on these grounds, despite the activists'  
explicit dissociation from guerrilla organizations.

Tied to the attack on indigenous communities is the increase in  
displacement occurring across the country, as the military and  
paramilitaries clear regions of their human inhabitants, including  
along with indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians and poor peasants, for  
resource development. The war between guerrillas, such as the  
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), on the one hand, and  
paramilitaries and the army, on the other, has also contributed to the  
displacement. More than 280,000 people were displaced over the first 6  
months of 2008, 41% more than the same period in 2007.

Disappearances have also increased significantly under Uribe.  
According to Colombia observer, Gary Leech, Colombia's Prosecutor's  
Office is investigating the disappearance of 1,015 people in the past  
year, which is more than four times the number of disappeared in 2007.  
Disappearances have increased for four years in a row, and the  
military's involvement is suspected in more than 90% of cases. As  
Leech starkly notes, the massive scale of disappearances "places the  
Uribe government on par with the dictatorship of General Augusto  
Pinochet during the darkest years of Chile's dirty war."

A Human-Rights Friendly Trade Deal?
While the Tories downplay the scale of the human rights problem in  
Colombia, they can't ignore it outright. And so to assuage their  
critics, they included a Labour Cooperation side agreement (not part  
of the actual trade deal), which they claim will ensure that Canadian  
trade and investment doesn't contribute to an already bleak rights  
situation in the country. The side agreement calls on the two  
countries to respect basic core labour standards (right to unionize,  
no child labour, no forced labour etc.). But, not surprisingly, there  
are a number of serious limits to this side agreement that should give  
us pause.

For one thing, there's no standing body established beyond those that  
might already exist in the respective countries to oversee the side  
agreement's day-to-day implementation or to which workers can complain  
when their rights have been violated. In other words, Colombians will  
have to complain to bodies within the Colombian government, which  
presumably they can (theoretically at least) do now and which  
therefore sharply diminishes any efficacy the side agreement may have  
had given the government's rights record.

There is a provision for either of the partner countries to request a  
ministerial "consultation" with each other if they feel obligations  
under the side agreement aren't being met (Part Three of the  
agreement). If unsatisfied with the response, the country that  
initiated the consultation can then call for the formation of a review  
panel to report on the claim that obligations aren't being followed.  
But we have to ask: if Canada signs a trade agreement with Colombia  
after purposefully downplaying the depth of latter's human rights  
problems, and after ignoring the implication of the government with  
which it signed the agreement in these problems, why would it complain  
about these problems after the agreement comes into force? Further,  
given the violence and intimidation that's regularly visited upon  
unionists in Colombia, what is the likelihood of them coming forward  
to tell their story, or doing so safely?

And the punishment for failing to live up to obligations? Fines. As I  
noted in a previous article (referenced above), this amounts to a  
decriminalization of violence and intimidation. Moreover, it's not  
clear in the side agreement that the Colombian government will be held  
responsible for the actions of paramilitaries, who're responsible for  
a significant amount of the violence against union activists and  
retain a nominal independence from the government.

Another major flaw of the Labour Cooperation side agreement is that it  
obviously doesn't cover indigenous peoples, who're victimized at  
staggering rates in the name of foreign investment and corporate  
interests. How can Canada talk meaningfully about addressing human  
rights concerns when the trade agreement totally ignores one of the  
most violated groups in Colombia?

The Trade Deal Must Be Stopped
The implication is obvious: the Labour Cooperation side agreement and  
the talk of human rights concerns in general are just window dressing.  
The real interest on the part of the Tories and Canadian capital is  
penetrating the Colombian market and gaining control over its  
subsurface riches. Canadian foreign investment into Colombia, for  
instance, has been steadily increasing in the last few years, and like  
all of Canada's post-1994 trade agreements, this one has a strongly  
pro-corporate investment clause as its centrepiece (modeled, in fact,  
on NAFTA's chapter 11). Canadian foreign investment is heavily  
concentrated in the mining and oil and gas industries, though  
Canadians also have a strong presence in printing, paper and footwear.  
In 2007, according to Statistics Canada Canadian companies had a  
combined direct investment stock of $739 million in Colombia, almost  
double from the year before. The Canadian embassy in Bogota estimates  
it at $3 billion, however, as a large chunk of Canadian investment is  
made through offshore financial centres where tax burdens and  
regulations are weak. More than $2 billion in investment is being  
planned over the next two years.

If the agreement is successfully implemented, it will represent a  
major victory for Canadian capital: secure economic access to a  
country rich in resources before even the Americans finalize their own  
deal with it; stronger ties to an imperial client state in a region  
with powerful social movements and where left-leaning populist  
governments have made electoral gains (again, see my previous articles  
on this issue); and a clear victory (both ideological and material)  
for corporate profits over social considerations.

The potential defeat of Harper's minority government may put a new  
twist on the trade agreement. Before his political misfire this week,  
Harper committed to having a vote on the agreement in Parliament,  
despite a vote not being technically necessary for it to be  
implemented. As for the minority coalition government that will likely  
replace the Tories, the NDP has criticized the agreement sharply, but  
the Liberals have a long track record of supporting investment in  
Colombia and didn't come out against the deal when the conclusion of  
negotiations was announced last June. The NDP has already conceded on  
its election pledge to rollback corporate tax cuts as part of its deal  
with the Liberals; how committed is it to its opposition to a trade  
deal with Colombia?

As with all other matters related to the potential minority coalition  
– indeed with electoral politics more generally – we can't rely on the  
political parties, including the NDP, to do the right thing. We need  
to mobilize people to force the government, regardless of who's in  
power, to back down from the agreement.

Todd Gordon is the author of Cops, Crime and Capitalism: The Law-and- 
Order Agenda in Canada. He's currently writing a book on Canadian  
imperialism. His articles have appeared on Znet, The Bullet and in New  
Socialist magazine. He is an assistant professor of Canadian Studies  
at the University of Toronto, and can be reached  
atts.gordon at utoronto.ca.

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