New deal needed on Colombia, Peru labor terms-USTR
Source: Reuters
(Adds Colombian government comment in paragraph six) By Doug Palmer WASHINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Peru and Colombia need to address labor concerns being raised by many Democrats to win congressional approval of free trade pacts with the United States, a top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday. The United States has informed both trading partners "we'll need to make some substantive adjustments to those texts," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau told reporters, referring to the labor section of separate trade deals with the two Andean countries. But U.S. trade officials quickly backed away from any suggestion the United States wanted to formally reopen the agreements, which were both signed last year. "We believe these adjustments can be made through some binding instrument and it is not necessary to reopen the text of the agreement," USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said. Peruvian and Colombian officials said they expected the issue to addressed through separate side letters on labor. "We are sure that the text of the agreement will not be reopened," Colombian Trade Minister Luis Plata told reporters in Bogota. However, that solution may not satisfy enough Democrats to win approval of the two trade deals. Democrats and Republicans have long clashed over how to handle worker protections in trade agreements. With Democrats now in charge of Congress, the White House needs to move toward their position to get its free trade deals passed. Under legislation approved in 2002, when Republicans ran Congress, the Bush administration's approach has been to require countries to strive to enforce their own labor laws or face possible monetary fines. However, many Democrats want U.S. free trade partners to be required to abide by core international labor standards -- such as freedom to organize and bargain collectively and freedom from workplace discrimination -- or face the possibility of economic sanctions if they don't. US LABOR GROUP OBJECTS Eduardo Ferreyros, FTA coordinator at the Foreign Trade and Tourism Ministry of Peru, told a local radio station in Lima he expected the United States and Peru to address the labor issue through a "side letter ... that will not change the content of the chapter that was already signed." Maria Consuelo Araujo, Colombia's foreign minister, said in Bogota her country also expected the issue would be handled through some "mechanism like a side letter." A spokesman for House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, said they were reserving comment for now. Rangel has previously been opposed to the idea of a side letter. Thea Lee, policy director at the AFL-CIO labor federation, said a side letter would not address their concerns, which go beyond the labor provisions of the two pacts into areas such as investment, environment and government procurement. Veroneau said he hoped a "new template" for handling labor in trade agreements could be found in time for Congress to pass trade pacts with Peru, Colombia and Panama by mid 2007. The Panama agreement is the most recent of the three, and U.S. trade negotiators deliberately left the labor chapter open in order to consult with Congress on how to proceed.
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