MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bush administration pushes for FTA with Colombia and Peru

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week requested from Congress the ratification of the Free Trade Agreements, FTA, which the White House has signed with Peru and Colombia.

"We have signed two FTA with Peru and Colombia and finished negotiations with Panama. We expect the support of Congress for these very important trade agreements", said Ms Rice during a hearing before the House of Representatives International Affairs Committee. Ms Rice was in Congress to argue in support of the State Department's 2008 budget which totals 35.2 billion US dollars. "FTAs are an essential instrument of President George Bush's foreign policy and during his time in office Congress has ratified agreements with twelve countries, including Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic", said the Secretary of State. Ms Rice said that the Bush administration considers free trade a powerful instrument to promote development, to help reduce poverty and ensure democratic governance. The ratification of the FTA with Peru and Colombia will be considered at mid year by the US Congress which is now under control of the opposition Democrats, who are rather reluctant towards this kind of trade agreements and have an overall more jobs-protectionist attitude. The majority chief in the Senate, Democrat Harry Reid said last month that the FTA with Peru had greater chances of being ratified, although he admitted not favoring the signing of this kind of agreements. When specifically questioned about the Colombia FTA, he said that "I haven't looked at it yet". Democrat and union leaders last year questioned the FTA with Colombia arguing that this country does not respect trade union rights because "they are persecuted and killed". The accusation received a quick reply from Colombian president Alvaro Uribe who admitted that several union leaders in the past had been killed, but under his rule the situation begun to be reversed.