Colombia FTA
Colombia closed negotiations on February 28, 2006. The text of the agreement was published in May of this year. There is widespread resistance inside of Colombia to the agreement, and it will also be very controversial in the US Congress.
The Colombian government has recently announced that it will be formally signed on the 22 of November, the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S., when the administration apparently calculates that nobody will be watching.
Signing an agreement with Colombia seems perhaps the most egregious, given the alleged U. S. commitment to labor rights and the rate at which labor organizers continue being killed in Colombia. We hope this agreement will face an uphill battle in the U.S. Congress. Since the bill has not been formally introduced in Congress, it seems unlikely any action on it is possible before next year, but given this Administration's disdain for proper procedure, we must be vigilant for any surprises which may arise.