[R-G] Disaster in the Making: Canada Concludes Its Free Trade Agreement With Colombia

[Anthony Fenton]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 112 .... June 11, 2008
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Disaster in the Making: Canada Concludes Its Free Trade Agreement With  
Colombia
Todd Gordon

What's the monetary value of a Colombian trade unionist's life? As it  
turns out, it depends on how many are killed in a given year since the  
potential fines the Colombian government will have to pay as penalty  
under its free trade agreement (FTA) with Canada whenever a union  
activist is killed is capped at $15 million. If this sounds like a  
sick joke I apologize, but this is in effect what the Canadian  
government actually negotiated.

On June 7th, Canada proudly proclaimed that it had successfully  
concluded its trade deal with the human rights-troubled Andean  
country. Negotiated with an efficiency that must make the Bush  
administration -- whose own trade agreement with Colombia has stalled  
because of Congressional opposition -- jealous, the deal was concluded  
less than a year after negotiations began.

With four Canadian cabinet ministers visiting Colombian president  
Alvaro Uribe and other members of his cabinet between July 2007 and  
February 2008, it's clear the Harper Tories had made the trade deal a  
major priority despite Colombia's appalling human rights record (see,  
for example, my article on Canada and Colombia). As new Foreign  
Affairs minister (and ex-Liberal), David Emerson, declared, "The  
Government of Canada is delivering on its commitment to open up  
opportunities for Canadian business in the Americas and around the  
world."

The agreement, which still hasn't been made public, will now undergo a  
legal review by Canadian and Colombian lawyers. After the review is  
completed, it'll be brought to the House of Commons for ratification,  
which should not be a problem for the Tories despite their minority  
government since the Liberals have said they'll support it if it  
contains language on human rights. It does -- but I'll come back to  
that in a moment.

Let the Canadian Capitalist Onslaught Begin
Like the trade deals before it (NAFTA, Israel, Chile, Costa Rica and  
most recently Peru), the Canada-Colombia FTA will significantly reduce  
tariffs on exports between the participating countries across a whole  
range of industries. But like the trade deals before it, it perhaps  
more importantly opens another country up to Canadian investment. As a  
press release from Foreign Affairs states, "Once implemented, the  
agreement will lock in market access for Canadian investors and  
provide them with greater stability, transparency and protection for  
their investments."

Since NAFTA, Canadian-negotiated free trade deals have included  
chapters that provide extremely strong corporate investment rights  
(the infamous chapter 11 in NAFTA). That's the "stability,  
transparency and protection" Foreign Affairs is talking about.  
Canadian multinationals will now be given privileged access to the  
Colombian market and its resources, backed up by the right to sue  
Colombian governments if they feel their rights under the trade  
agreement haven't been fulfilled -- as might be the case, for  
instance, if local community opposition halts a mining project.  
Canadian companies have in fact been actively litigious under the  
other trade agreements; they are more likely to sue foreign  
governments than their foreign counterparts are to sue Canadian  
governments.

Add to the new FTA the aggressive neoliberal restructuring Colombia  
has already undergone in the last several years, including the  
Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)-funded rewriting of  
its mining code (which allows corporations access to indigenous land)  
and the ridiculously low royalty rate imposed on foreign investors (as  
low as 5% in the oil sector and 0.4% in mining), and Canadian  
corporations could have a field day. Colombia is rich in petroleum,  
natural gas, coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, copper, emeralds, and  
hydropower -- and Canada has the largest mining industry in the world,  
and not insignificant oil and hydropower sectors.

The Colombian FTA is part of Canada's so-called Global Commerce  
Strategy, a significant part of which is increasing Canada's economic  
influence in the Americas. According to the Foreign Affairs press  
release announcing the conclusion of the trade negotiations, "The  
Strategy includes an aggressive trade negotiation agenda that aims to  
secure competitive terms of access in markets that offer significant  
potential for our products and expertise." This strategy has clearly  
been a success in Colombia.

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