Take that, Hugo Chavez!

Colombia has chosen freedom and prosperity over dependency, isolation and handouts! A free trade pact was signed this morning with the U.S.!

It was one long hard tough slog in negotiations, but President Alvaro Uribe and the U.S. Trade Representative finally came to common ground after lots of give and take, as is right between two good friends.

Today, Colombia now has access to the world’s biggest market, will get all the computers and technology and whatever it want from our markets, and we in the U.S. in turn will benefit from Colombia’s ever more competitively priced roses, vegetables, coffee, steel, manufactured goods, and, get this … oil … a rising star among Colombia’s many exports as it diversifies its economy in a healthy direction. It’s not a perfect pact but it’s a done pact and most of it is going to help everyone. So much for the chavista model of isolation and antiamericanism. Colombians would prefer our money instead. Hence, free trade is victorious today!

This is going to be really cool. Colombia joins Peru as a partner in free trade, and soon Ecuador will follow.

Welcome to the club, Colombia!!!!!

TRADE FACTS
Office of the United States Trade Representative
February 27, 2006

Free Trade with Colombia: Brief Summary of the Agreement

* Market Access for U.S. Consumer and Industrial Products: Over
eighty percent of U.S. exports of consumer and industrial products to
Colombia will become duty-free immediately, with remaining tariffs
phased out over 10 years. Key U.S. exports will gain immediate
duty-free access to Colombia. Colombia agreed to allow trade in
remanufactured goods, and will join the WTO Information Technology
Agreement.

* New Opportunities for U.S. Farmers and Ranchers: U.S. farm
exports to Colombia that will receive immediate duty-free treatment
include high quality beef, cotton, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal; key
fruits and vegetables including apples, pears, peaches, and cherries;
and many processed food products including frozen french fries and
cookies. U.S. farm products that will benefit from improved market
access include pork, beef, corn, poultry, rice, fruits and vegetables,
processed products, and dairy products. The United States and Colombia
have worked to resolve sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to
agricultural trade, including on food safety inspection procedures for
beef, pork, and poultry.

* Textiles and Apparel – Promoting Cooperation and Benefits:
Textiles and apparel will be duty-free and quota-free immediately if the
products meet the agreement’s rule of origin, promoting new
opportunities for U.S. and Colombian fiber, yarn, fabric and apparel
manufacturing.

* Strong Protections for U.S. Investors: The agreement
establishes a stable legal framework for U.S. investors operating in
Colombia. All forms of investment are protected under the agreement.
U.S. investors will enjoy in almost all circumstances the right to
establish, acquire, and operate investments in Colombia in an equal
footing with local investors. Investor protections will be backed by a
transparent, binding international arbitration mechanism.

* Expanded Access to Services Markets: Colombia will accord
substantial market access across their entire services regime, including
financial services. Colombia agreed to eliminate measures that require
U.S. firms to hire national rather than U.S. professionals and phase-out
market restrictions in cable television. Colombia also agreed that both
mutual funds and pension funds in its territory will be allowed to use
portfolio managers in the U.S.

* Greater Protection for Intellectual Property Rights: The
agreement provides for improved standards for the protection and
enforcement of a broad range of intellectual property rights, which are
consistent with both U.S. standards of protection and enforcement, and
with emerging international standards. Such improvements include
state-of-the-art protections for digital products such as U.S. software,
music, text, and videos; stronger protection for U.S. patents,
trademarks and test data, including an electronic system for the
registration and maintenance of trademarks; and further deterrence of
piracy and counterfeiting by criminalizing end-use piracy.

* The Digital Age: The United States and Colombia agreed to
provisions on e-commerce that commit all parties to non-discriminatory
treatment of digital products. The parties agreed not to impose customs
duties on digital products transmitted electronically and to cooperate
in numerous policy areas related to e-commerce. Additionally, the
agreement requires procedures for resolving disputes about trademarks
used in Internet domain names.

* Strong Protections for Worker Rights: Labor obligations are
part of the core text of the agreement. The agreement requires that the
parties effectively enforce their own domestic labor laws. Procedural
guarantees in the agreement will ensure that workers and employers will
have fair, equitable and transparent access to labor tribunals/courts.

* Commitments and Cooperation to Protect the Environment:
Environment obligations are part of the core text of the agreement. The
agreement commits parties to effectively enforce their own domestic
environmental laws and to establish high levels of environmental
protection. Additionally, the agreement is complemented by an
Environmental Cooperation Agreement that provides a framework for
undertaking environmental capacity building in Colombia.

* Trade Capacity Building: Development and Trade Together: The
agreement creates a Trade Capacity Building Committee, which will help
Colombia build its capacity to implement the obligations of the
agreement and to benefit more broadly from the opportunities it creates.
Assistance programs discussed by the committee include programs for
small and medium-sized enterprises and rural farmers, and programs for
improvements in transportation infrastructure and telecommunications.
The U.S. Government provided approximately $92 million in trade capacity
building (TCB) assistance to Colombia for the period of fiscal years
2004 and 2005. Colombia has benefited from an additional $7 million in
U.S. Government TCB assistance to Andean regional programs for that
period. Multilateral lenders such as the Inter-American Development
Bank and the World Bank provide additional trade-related assistance.

* Fair and Open Government Procurement: U.S. suppliers are
granted non-discriminatory rights to bid on contracts from a broad range
of Colombian government ministries, agencies, public enterprises, and
regional governments. The agreement requires the use of fair and
transparent procurement procedures, such as advance notice of purchases
and timely and effective bid review procedures.

* An Open and Competitive Telecommunications Market: Users of
Colombian telecom networks are guaranteed reasonable and
nondiscriminatory access to the network. This prevents local firms from
having preferential or “first right” of access to telecom networks.
U.S. phone companies obtained the right to interconnect with Colombian
dominant suppliers’ fixed networks at nondiscriminatory and cost-based
rates.

* Increased Transparency: The agreement’s dispute settlement
mechanisms provide for open public hearings, public access to documents,
and the opportunity for third parties to submit views. Transparency in
customs operations will aid express delivery shipments and will require
more open and public processes for customs rulings and administration.
For custom procedures, Colombia committed to publish laws and
regulations on the Internet, and will ensure procedural certainty and
fairness. Colombia also committed to make public their responses to
significant comments received on proposed technical regulations.

* Dispute Settlement: Core obligations, including labor and
environment provisions, are subject to the dispute settlement mechanism
of the agreement.

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A more detailed fact sheet is also available at the USTR website:
http://www.ustr.gov/assets/Document_Library/Fact_Sheets/2006/asset_uploa
d_file485_9023.pdf