3 June, 2010Stating that the Colombia-EU trade agreement will harm domestic production and cause unemployment, the three trade union centers in Colombia add that the agreement does not take account of the economic imbalances between the economies.
COLOMBIA: The presidents of three trade union centers in Colombia rejected the Free Trade Agreement signed by President Álvaro Uribe Vélez with the European Union in a joint statement. They described the agreement as unsuitable for the country because it would harm domestic production and affect many jobs.
Julio Roberto Gómez, vice president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA) and director of the CGT reiterated the rejection of the Free Trade Agreements that Colombia negotiated with the U.S. and Canada and state their position is the same on the agreement with the EU.
"The concept of a Free Trade Agreement is not the problem," he affirmed. "The problem is the content, because they do not have the clauses needed to protect Colombian production and this will bring us many problems in terms of unemployment and loss of economic resources."
He added that the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union in particular does not consider the great imbalance between the economies of Colombia and the European countries.