The United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement (CTPA) (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

: ''Tratado de Libre Comercio entre Colombia y Estados Unidos'' or ''TLC'') is a bilateral

free trade agreement A free trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is an agreement according to international law to form a free-trade area between the cooperating state (polity), states. There are two types of trade agreements: Bilateralism, bilateral and Multilateralism, m ...

between the

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and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. Sometimes called the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, it was signed on November 22, 2006, by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative John Veroneau and Colombian Minister of Trade, Industry, and Tourism Jorge Humberto Botero. CTPA is a comprehensive agreement that will eliminate tariffs and other barriers to trade in goods and services between the United States and Colombia, including government procurement, investment, telecommunications, electronics commerce, intellectual property rights, and labor and environmental protection The

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...

. Colombia's Congress approved the agreement and a protocol of amendment in 2007. Colombia's Constitutional Court completed its review in July 2008, and concluded that the Agreement conforms to Colombia's Constitution. President Obama tasked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with seeking a path to address outstanding issues surrounding the Colombia FTA. The

then took on the agreement and passed it on October 12, 2011. The agreement went into effect on May 15, 2012.

Economic relationship

The United States is Colombia's leading trading partner. In 2005, 39% of Colombia's exports went to the United States, and 29% of Colombia's imports were supplied by the United States. The second most significant trading partner for Colombia is Venezuela, accounting for 7% of Colombia's imports and 10% of Colombia's exports. Other significant trading partners for Colombia are Mexico, Ecuador, Germany, and Brazil. Colombia is the 28th largest U.S. export market ($5.41 billion in 2005) and the 31st largest source of U.S. imports ($8.85 billion in 2005). The dominant U.S. import item from Colombia is crude oil (38% of U.S. imports from Colombia in 2005), followed by coal, other petroleum oils, precious and semi-precious stones, coffee, tea, and flowers and plants.Luxner, Larry, ''Colombia Reaches Crossroads With Free Trade Agreement'', The Washington Diplomat, 27 July 2011 Two-thirds of U.S. exports to Colombia are manufactured goods.Hidalgo, Juan C. and Griswold, D., ''Trade Agreement Would Promote U.S. Exports and Colombian Civil Society'', Free Trade Bulletin No. 44, 15 February 2011 The top U.S. exports are chemicals, plastics, electrical equipment, excavating machinery, telecommunications equipment, computers and computer accessories, industrial engines, and drilling and oilfield equipment. For the last seven years, Colombia has been receiving $10 billion to $15 billion annually in foreign direct investment, and has been rapidly developing its mining sector. As a result, Colombia is the sixth-largest market in the world for large earthmoving equipment manufactured by

Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc., also known as Cat, is an American construction, mining and other engineering equipment manufacturer. The company is the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 73 on the ' ...

, a U.S. manufacturer of bulldozers and other earthmoving machinery, despite a Colombian tariff of five to fifteen percent.Tarter, Steve, and McDonald, Karen, ''Schock, Cat CEO praise trade pact with Colombia'', The Journal Star, 6 April 2011. U.S. agricultural exports benefiting under the agreement include beef and pork products, wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton. The agreement would grant immediate duty-free access to export categories most important to the U.S. beef industry, such as USDA Prime and Choice beef cuts. All other tariffs on beef would be eliminated, with the final tariffs removed within 15 years. Colombian tariffs on pork products ranging from 20 to 30 percent, would be phased out to zero within 5 to 15 years. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates the fully implemented agreement would boost U.S. beef exports to Colombia by 46 percent and pork exports by 72 percent. Colombian tariffs of 5 to 20 percent for wheat and soybeans would be immediately eliminated; with a 25 percent tariff on corn to be phased out over 12 years. The agreement would immediately eliminate the 10 percent duty on U.S. cotton upon enactment U.S. imports from Colombia have increased notably since 1996, from $4.27 billion in 1996 to $8.85 billion in 2005, a 107% increase. The U.S. trade deficit with Colombia was $3.43 billion in 2005. Since late 2006, U.S. products have been charged more than $3.4 billion in Colombian tariffs and duties that otherwise would have been eliminated by the free trade agreement. The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the agreement would boost U.S. exports to Colombia by an additional $1.1 billion per year.

History

In May 2004, the United States initiated

negotiations with Colombia,

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. The United States concluded negotiations with Colombia in February 2006 and the CTPA was signed on November 22, 2006. After, based on "the New Trade Policy Template", a bipartisan agreement, both countries negotiated a Protocol of Amendment that was signed on June 28, 2007.

Process in Colombia

The agreement was signed on November 22, 2006, was submitted to the Colombian Congress by President

Álvaro Uribe Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010. Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia Department, Antioquia. H ...

on November 30, 2006. The Bill was debated and voted in a joint session on April 25, 2007. The House Floor approved it on June 5, 2007 (Yeas 85, Nays 10) and the Senate Floor vote on June 14, 2007 (Yeas 55, Nays 3). Finally, the CTPA became public law - ''Ley 1143'' - on July 4, 2007. The Protocol of Amendment, signed on June 28, 2007, was submitted to the Colombian Congress by, Uribe on July 20 of 2007. The Bill was approved in a joint session on August 29, 2007, and voted by the House Floor on September 25, 2007 (Yeas 84, Nays 3). After, the Senate Floor approved the Bill on October 30, 2007 (Yeas 54, Nays 16). Finally, the Protocol of Amendment became public Law – ''Ley 1116'' – on November 21, 2007. The Agreement then underwent a constitutionally mandated court review, according to Colombian regulations. The agreement was deemed to conform to the Colombian Constitution by Colombia's Constitutional Court in July 2008. Aspects of the agreement relating to copyright were planned to be implemented in Colombia Bill no. 201 of 2012.

Process in the U.S.

President Bush sent legislation to implement the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement to Congress for its approval on April 7, 2007. It was not approved before the end of the Congressional session in December 2008 or the end of President Bush's term in January 2009. President Obama asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to address outstanding issues in the agreement; however, during a visit from Colombian President Uribe in June 2009, Obama said he did not have a "strict timetable" to the agreement, as controversy over the safety of Colombian labor leaders continue. U.S. Congress' failure to secure approval of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement has adversely affected bilateral relations between the two nations. On October 12, 2011 after renegotiating parts of the agreement, it was passed by the

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262–167 and the

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66–33. An aid program for displaced workers called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) was also included in the bill.

Key provisions of the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement

Market access

Upon implementation, the agreement would eliminate duties on 80% of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to Colombia. An additional 7% of U.S. exports would receive duty-free treatment within five years of implementation. Remaining tariffs would be eliminated ten years after implementation. Colombia will join the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA), which would remove Colombia's trade barriers to information technology products. In agriculture, the agreement would grant duty-free treatment immediately to certain farm products from both countries, including high quality beef, cotton, wheat, and soybean meal. Other products that would receive immediate duty-free treatment are key fruits and vegetables, including apples, pears, peaches, and cherries, and many processed food products, including frozen French fries and cookies. Some other products would receive improved market access; these include pork, beef, corn, poultry, rice, fruits and vegetables, processed products, and dairy products. The United States and Colombia worked together to resolve sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to trade in agriculture, including food safety inspection procedures for beef, pork, and poultry. These commitments are reportedly written in two separate side letters on sanitary and phytosanitary measures that would be attached to the FTA.

Allegations of human rights violations

In the first 10 months of the Santos administration in Colombia, 104 labor and human rights activists were murdered. One category of human rights abuses involves the murder of over 50 labor leaders from the Legal Left at the hands of paramilitaries and death squads, and sometimes there have been allegations of involvement on the part of multinational corporations. In a few cases, this has resulted in damaging public allegations and even court cases for several multinational corporations from the U.S. and Canada (including Dole,

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

, Drummond Coal, and Chiquita, formerly known as the

United Fruit Company The United Fruit Company (later the United Brands Company) was an American multinational corporation that traded in tropical fruit (primarily bananas) grown on Latin American plantations and sold in the United States and Europe. The company was ...

). The Colombian Sintraminercol mining union has alleged that many international mining companies already working in Colombia have a record of paramilitary collaboration, as well as environmental negligence. The agreement has had much difficulty passing Congress for years due to the persistence of these issues. The following videos, launched by the U.S. Office on Colombia on June 23, 2011, provide testimony from Colombian citizens on the impact of the FTA on:
Afro-Colombian and indigenous communitiesSmall-scale workers and farmersColombian civil society
Political violence had greatly lessened in Colombia over the past decade, however, and objections to the trade agreement have been criticized by Colombians and the Republican party. Conservative Canadian Prime Minister

Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper (born April 30, 1959) is a Canadian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Canada from 2006 to 2015. He is to date the only prime minister to have come from the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada, ser ...

, who signed a Canada - Colombia agreement that took effect in August 2011, has accused opponents of trade deals with the country as "standing in the way of the development of the prosperity of Colombia," adding that "we can't block the progress of a country like this for protectionist reasons and try to use human rights as a front for doing that."Steven Chase
Stephen Harper defends free-trade deal with Colombia
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' August 2011

References

External links

Embassy of Colombia

The Colombian Government Trade Bureau

Congressional Research Service Report on Andean Free Trade Agreement, including Peru TPA

Colombia-United States Free Trade Agreement
at Discourse DB
Brief Summary of the Colombia Free Trade AgreementFact Sheets Detailed Summary of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement
*
Video talking about the reasons for a FTA with Colombia - Under Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Chris. Padilla)May 20, 2008 McCain: Colombia FTA Benefits U.S.May 14, 2008 - Colombian's leading productive sector trade unions and their members strongly support the U.S. - Colombia TPA. Here are their testimonies
*[http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Multimedia.VideoOfSenate&ContentRecord_id=c47b69ce-bfbc-9884-33ff-83d3f8fa536f May 7, 2008 - U.S. Senate "U.S. - Colombia Trade Agreement Good for American Jobs"]
May 6, 2008 - USTR Ambassador Schwab remarks to the Peterson Institute. "I call on the Congressional leadership to bring the Colombia FTA to a vote. Let’s move forward with our agenda"May 6, 2008 - Bloomberg "Canada Pushes Colombia Trade Agreement, as U.S. Deal Languishes"See how international trade impacts your state.
{{DEFAULTSORT:United States-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Colombia–United States relations Free trade agreements of Colombia

Treaties concluded in 2006 Treaties entered into force in 2012 Treaties of Colombia