[R-G] Conservatives go it alone on Free Trade with Colombia

[Anthony Fenton]

September 27, 2008
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2119

Conservatives go it alone on Free Trade with Colombia

by Dawn Paley

The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

The Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Centre confirmed Thursday  
that his party is alone among the four major parties battling it out  
in Western Canada that supports a free trade agreement between Canada  
and Colombia.

Trade hasn’t been on the front burner during this campaign, unlike in  
the US where it is a hot issue. Democratic presidential candidate  
Barack Obama has stated his opposition to a US-Colombia Free Trade  
Agreement, while Republican John McCain supports the deal.

Conservative hopeful Lorne Mayencourt said that the Canada-Colombia  
deal was negotiated in a way that is “beneficial to both countries,"  
and that free trade agreements “can lead to democracies that are  
really quite good.”

Mayencourt’s position differs from that of the other candidates, who  
rejected the deal in a morning debate at the University of British  
Columbia on Thursday.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't trade with Colombia at all, I'm saying we  
need to look at the terms and the conditions of the negotiation that  
Mr. Emerson did with Colombia," said Hedy Fry, the Liberal incumbent  
in Vancouver-Centre, echoing her party's position on the deal.

Though the Liberals do not specifically mention the Canada-Colombia  
agreement in their platform, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion spoke  
against the deal earlier this week.

"The way it was negotiated by the Conservatives we have no guarantee  
at all that the basic rights will be respected through this agreement,  
the workers' rights, and so on. It [sic] is why we can not accept it,"  
he said, speaking Tuesday night at the University of British Colombia.

“A free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia would lead to more  
displacement, more threats and more violence against unionists, Afro- 
Colombians and Indigenous peoples,” said George Heyman, past president  
of the BC Government and Service Employees' Union, who visited  
Colombia with other Canadian union leaders in July.

The NDP has taken a strong stance against the deal, responding in part  
to concerns from the Canadian labour movement. Forty-one trade  
unionists have been killed in Colombia this year alone.

"There are some very serious human rights and labour rights issues in  
Colombia. The Colombian agreement was done without a view to those  
important concerns, and it should be renounced," said Michael Byers, a  
UBC professor and rookie NDP candidate.

Adriane Carr, Vancouver-Centre's Green Party candidate, stated that  
her party is against the agreement. The Greens would seek to  
renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement if they were  
elected.

Human Rights Watch calls Colombia the country with the "worst human  
rights and humanitarian situation in the region, with many serious  
problems, including massive internal displacement, killings, and  
enforced disappearances."

The end of negotiations between Canada and Colombia were announced on  
June 7, days before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and  
International Trade finished its report about the deal. The report was  
meant to guide the negotiation process, and recommends that for the  
moment, the government of Canada should not sign a deal with Colombia.

"I'm not really familiar with that, so I'm sorry I can't comment on  
that part of it," said Mayencourt, who was hesitant to comment further  
on the agreement.

Mayencourt’s lack of familiarity with the way the deal has been  
negotiated by the Conservatives drives home the low priority of trade  
deals in this federal campaign. The text of the Canada-Colombia  
agreement has not been released to the public.

South of the border, a US-Colombia deal worked its way to the US House  
of Representatives this spring. The Democrat-controlled congress  
blocked passage of the deal, in part due to concerns about the human  
rights record of President Alvaro Uribe's government in Colombia.

The decision of the next Canadian government for or against free trade  
with Colombia could have implications in the US.

A Canada-Colombia agreement "will give aid and comfort to all the  
liberalizing forces within the United States who are instantly going  
to notice it and say, 'If the Canadians are doing Colombia, why can't  
we?'" University of Toronto political scientist John Kirton told  
Bloomberg News in May.