The pending U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) would give special trade preferences to a government that has done little to respect workers' rights. The agreement, left over from the Bush administration, is another in a series of bad trade pacts negotiated by the Bush White House, deals that have contributed to a U.S. trade deficit of $677 billion in 2008, massive job loss and shrinking paychecks. Such trade deals have contributed to the loss of more than 3 million manufacturing jobs in the United States since 2001.

Workers across both countries oppose passage of the FTA until workers can fully exercise international core labor rights without fear, the country makes deep and sustained progress on ending impunity, and the agreement is amended to address persistent criticisms of the trade model.

In April 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi removed the Fast Track timetable from the FTA, delaying a vote indefinitely. President Obama opposed the Colombia FTA during the campaign.

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AFL-CIO Executive Council statement (March 2009): Yessika Hoyos, Sons and Daughters Against Impunity and for the Memory of the Fallen. View the congressional hearings, Examining Workers' Rights and Violence against Labor Union Leaders in Colombia. Read the letter from Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) to Colombia President Álvaro Uribe Vèlez. Read the report, Colombia: Continued Violence, Impunity and Non-Enforcement of Labor Law Overshadow the Government's Minor Accomplishments, (September 2008). Why We Oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, (April 8, 2008).

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