on free trade:
We specified that our disagreement with the FTA is not merely with particular parts but with the text as a whole, that is, with the very concept of so-called “free trade”, because its aim is a world that benefits only a handful of monopolies. To demonstrate the degree to which the “free trade” concept is regressive, even for the people of the United States, we noted that in the United States the minimum wage is just now being increased for the first time in ten years! This shocking fact confirms that neoliberal globalization implies degradation of living standards for all nations in the world. We explained that the atrocious violence that has afflicted and continues to afflict Colombia, which is understandably appalling to outside observers, makes it even more difficult for our country to compete on an equal footing with an economic competitor whose gross domestic product is 129 times larger than ours.
(...) Colombia would suffer enormous losses due to the extremely one-sided character of what has been agreed in terms of tariffs, agriculture, industry, sanitary and phyto-sanitary controls, subsidies allowed to the United States, intellectual property, medicines, investment rules, procurement contracts, telecommunications, financial services, dispute resolution, the balance of payments clause, indirect expropriation, labor mobility, transborder commerce, and culture, among other things. In terms of labor conditions, Article 17.2 of the FTA would intensify the already shocking situation for Colombian workers by authorizing further weakening of labor standards for the benefit of employers. Article 18.2 does the same for environmental norms. To try to turn the FTA into a positive agreement by making a few cosmetic changes would be like trying to alter Frankenstein’s nature with a bit of lipstick and earrings.