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Deputy USTR pressed on Colombia FTA

The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade held a hearing Thursday on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. 

Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Miriam Sapiro told the subcommittee members that, while progress is being made, issues involving labor and human rights in Colombia must be resolved, “so that the serious concerns that we have on the labor code—to be able to ensure that the labor laws and their enforcement protect and promote worker rights, so that they are not undermined—that we can reach those goals together.”

Nebraska congressman Adrian Smith pressed Sapiro for a timeline on the Colombia FTA.  “Would you agree that our ag producers, among other producers here in our country, remain at a competitive disadvantage as long as the agreement languishes?” Smith asked.

“We don’t want to see any export opportunity or any job left on the table,” Sapiror replied, “so we will work very hard to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”

Smith says he will continue to press for the FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea—all three—to be considered by July 1^st.