Background

President Bush, in an effort to push the Colombia Trade Agreement through Congress, put the bill on a “fast track,” forcing a 90-day timetable for voting on the agreement.  However, through a rules change, the House of Representatives moved to stop the fast-track timetable.

There is good reason for Congress to examine this agreement more closely.  The Colombia Free Trade Agreement is modeled after much of the same flawed language found in NAFTA and in the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which have led to major job loss, environmental degradation and the loss of family farms.

Even given the House action to stop the fast-track timetable, the Colombia Trade Agreement is still on table and may come before Congress as early as this month. This trade deal will only lead us further down the road of substandard jobs and wages, environmental destruction and the erosion of worker rights.