FocusUS trade deals in LatAm take new tack

19 November 2007 22:12  [Source: ICIS news]

By Joe Kamalick

 

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--US trade relations with neighbouring nations in Latin America are about to undergo a major change as the new Democratic majority in Congress begins to impose environmental and labour issues as standard elements in trade deals.

 

On the one hand, those new standards likely will make it easier to get US congressional approval on trade agreements negotiated by the White House. On the other hand, it might make it more difficult to get trading nations to agree to trade terms with the US.

 

The new standards for US bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) made their first appearance in the US-Peru FTA approved by the US House of Representatives on 8 November with an unusually strong bipartisan vote of 285-132.

 

Only 209 votes were needed for a simple majority approval, but, motivated by the new standards, nearly half of the House Democrats voted to put the Bush White House trade deal well past the minimum vote tally.

 

The US-Peru free trade agreement’s environmental and labour terms also have been incorporated into trade deals with Colombia and Panama that are now pending before Congress. While the trade agreements with those two Latin American nations may face other obstacles in Congress, the addition of environmental and worker rights provisions will help ease congressional approval.

 

As reflected in the Peru deal, US trade pacts will henceforth require that trade partners adopt, implement and enforce obligations under seven multilateral environmental agreements designed to protect endangered species, earth’s atmosphere and land resources.

 

For example, the Peru trade agreement requires that the Lima government adopt and enforce the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances and the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

 

For Peru in particular, these environmental concerns are further reflected in requiring that Lima take specific steps to crack down on illegal logging, particularly in mahogany. The agreement includes an unprecedented provision allowing the US to conduct investigations in Peru concerning illegal logging of mahogany and to stop questionable shipments before they leave Peru.

 

In labour issues, the new standard FTA language requires that Peru and partners in all subsequent trade deals adopt and enforce five basic worker protections as provided in the 1998 International Labour Organization’s (ILO) declaration of fundamental work rights.

 

Those protections include freedom of association, the right to collective bargaining, an end to forced labour and child labour and ending employment discrimination.

 

The US-Peru agreement still awaits US Senate approval, and the free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama must be approved by both the House and Senate, probably not before early next year.

 

Matthew Beck, spokesman for the House Ways and Means Committee, where the Colombia and Panama deals must first get approval, noted that there are longstanding concerns over Colombia’s illegal drug trade. Beck noted, too, that approval of the Panama deal is in question because a leading elected Panamanian official is believed to have killed a US soldier in earlier US-Panama conflicts.

 

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack conceded that getting the Colombia and Panama FTAs through Congress “is going to be a tough fight.”

 

“In domestic politics in the US, the consensus on trade is a very fragile one at the moment,” McCormack said.

 

Still, the introduction of new standard terms on environmental and worker protections is expected to make congressional approval more likely.

By: Joe Kamalick
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