From "Free Trade" to real policy points

From the White House fact sheets on the Colombia-US Trade Agreement, everyone should read the PDF with the increased labor protections negotiated by the Obama administration. I know there are still plenty of groups out there saying these actions aren't enough, but everyone should give credit that these are concrete policy initiatives that will save lives and assist in prosecuting crimes committed. Included:

• Expand the protection program for labor leaders.
• Clear the current police backlog and shorten the wait time for future protection assessments.
• Change criminal code to penalize threats of violence against unions.
• Assign 95 full time police investigators to support prosecutors and hire 480 new labor inspectors.
• Dedicate 100 inspectors to workers in sectors vulnerable to abuse including palm oil, sugar, mines, ports and flowers.
• Penalize companies that misuse cooperatives to undermine workers' rights.

Many of the initiatives in the document have a specific date to implement within the next three months and schedules ten bilateral meetings over the next three years to assess progress. This sets the issue up for a vote later this year.

Also of note, the Obama administration doesn't use the term "free trade" in any of the new documents. It's now "trade agreement" or "trade promotion agreement." It's a more accurate description.

The agreements with Colombia and Panama, like previous agreements with Peru, Central America, Chile and Mexico, drop some trade restrictions, tariffs and barriers but raise other restrictions including issues related to intellectual property, labor rights and environmental rights. It was long easy and incorrect to portray supporters and opponents of these agreements as "pro-free trade" or "anti-free trade," but as I've complained about previously, these issues are far more complex than simply the rallying cry of "free trade!!!". The Colombia Trade Agreement (full text here), with all its annexes, appendices and action plans, is over 300 pages. It's not just a sentence saying, "The US and Colombia now have free trade." It's full of policy points like the ones above that should be read and debated.

Source: http://www.bloggingsbyboz.com/2011/04/from-free-trade-to-real-policy-points.html

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