Bipartisan group of lawmakers heads to Colombia for trade talks

A bipartisan group of six lawmakers is heading to Colombia on Monday to discuss the pending free-trade agreement with the nation's leaders. 

House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.), House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Ways and Means subcommittee on Trade Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas), Colombia Caucus Co-Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Colombia Caucus Co-Chairman and subcommittee on Trade member Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Trade subcommittee member Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) left Washington this afternoon for two days of meetings on the trade deal that recently got the nod from President Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

The lawmakers are expected to meet Santos, his Cabinet and labor leaders and employers during the quick trip to Colombia, according to a Republican aide. 

President Obama and Santos shook hands April 7 on a deal that "significantly" expands the protections of labor leaders and organizers while improving efforts to punish those who commit acts of violence against union members, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said recently. 

Camp and other House Republicans are pressing the Obama administration to complete work on all three pending trade agreements — South Korea, Colombia and Panama — by July 1. 

"Without action prior to July 1, U.S. businesses, workers, farmers, and ranchers risk losing further market share to countries that have already reached free trade agreements with Colombia," Camp said in a statement. 

Under the plan brokered by U.S. and Colombian trade officials, Colombia will follow a roadmap to make incremental changes to its labor laws this year including providing greater protections for union leaders, such as shop stewards and bargaining committee members, for workers trying to organize or join a union, and for former union activists who may be threatened because of their past activities.

The plan also requires the Colombian government to revise its teacher relocation and protection program to address high risks to teachers, require sentences of up to five years in jail for threats against labor union workers and direct the Colombian National Police to assign 95 full-time judicial police investigators to help in prosecution. 

Although Kirk said the plan should quell union concerns over the effect on U.S. jobs, the AFL-CIO expressed deep disappointment with the decision, which pits Obama against a core part of his political base the same week he announced his 2012 reelection campaign. 

“The action plan does not go nearly far enough in laying out concrete benchmarks for progress in the areas of violence and impunity, nor does it address many of the ways in which Colombian labor law falls short of international standards,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said recently.