A Frightening US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement

The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will become valid on May 15; one more time, it seems that we have been caught with our pants down. In effect, while the huge country of the north prepares all of their artillery to bombard our country with more than 4,000 products that will enter with zero tariffs, in Colombia we can hardly come to understand the effect that this agreement will have on our economy.

In this country, many believe that they will obtain low-priced chocolate bars and crackers as benefits, without compensating for the costs that this agreement could have for a third world economy that faces a world power one on one.

Are we prepared to face this free trade model with a similar colossus in charge? Obviously not. None of the pending resolutions that should have been resolved by this point were completed.

The construction of new roads and highways, the resurrection of the train, the implementation of inland navigation and the modernization of port facility infrastructure were never achieved, despite the fact that we have been talking about them for more than four years.

Do we expect to face a massive and demanding market like the United States with mere Colombian ingenuity? Please, like always, “Olympians” to the end. The experts assure that this agreement will change all of our lives and with this I agree, but I am not sure that it will be for the good. I fear that the agreement will simply make the rich more rich (these are the best-prepared sectors), and the poor even poorer. For that reason, the disparity of inequality (in which we are champions) will simply increase. Let’s consider only one piece of information: In one year, 26,000 tons of chicken coming out of the United States will enter Colombia, and from here to there, not even one wing. Interesting trade. Are the poultry farmers ready for this? Well, of course not; it is just that they are limited in saying that they do not believe in market prices. Good God, be serious.

President Santos reports that the Free Trade Agreement will generate 500,000 jobs in Colombia, although I have not seen any study in this sense — in what sectors and in what time period? There must be some reason why Brazil, China and even Europe have not signed any trade promotion agreement with the United States. Truthfully, this model sounds to me like a cat and a mouse game — and guess who is the rat.