Word: fta
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...seen clearly in the continuing stream of agreements tying together regional powers. In August, India inked two FTAs in a week, with South Korea and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN and China are scheduled to bring most of the final tariff reductions of an FTA signed in 2004 into full effect by 2010. More deals are likely. Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has made his policy priority reaching a comprehensive economic framework with China that would reduce tariffs on Taiwan goods entering the Chinese market. Yukio Hatoyama, Japan's presumptive Prime Minister, has even proposed...
Even though at this point there do not appear to be enough legislators backing passage, Gutierrez says he wants the Colombia FTA to at least be given a chance for a vote. "We can get the votes for Colombia," he said. But by his own admission it will take "a lot of hard work and a lot of convincing." And it will probably take a few more visits to that hilltop library...
...FTA proponents say the best way for Colombia to continue to make progress on freedom and democracy is through economic growth and the engagement that comes with a trade deal. "The FTA allows internal observation of what's happening in Colombia," said Gutierrez. The agreement has special protocols that require Colombia to uphold international labor rights standards. "What I don't understand is how labor will be helped if there is no FTA...
Gutierrez says he'll keep coming back as long as it takes to get the votes for the controversial trade deal to pass. "It's not fair to the American people and it's not fair to the people of Colombia to make a decision [on the FTA] without coming here," the former CEO of Kellogg said as the van sped through the Colombian countryside. Most visiting lawmakers have remained noncommittal about their positions on the Colombia FTA, and Gutierrez says he does not press them to take a stand. But, he says, there's a "definite shift in attitude...
...seek convictions," says Jose Luciano Sanin, director of the Escuela Nacional Sindical, a labor rights group that tracks violence against Colombia's labor movement. "All of a sudden, with this external pressure, impunity in union cases has become a priority because it is a condition for approval of the FTA...