WASHINGTON: The United States and Colombia agreed a plan to boost labor rights in the Latin American nation and unblock a free trade agreement between their countries, President Barack Obama said.
"Today I am very pleased to announce that we have developed an action plan on labor rights," Obama said after White House talks with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.
"I believe that this serves as a basis for us moving forward on a US-Colombia free trade agreement."
The labor agreement should eliminate the final barrier to a free trade agreement signed by the two countries in 2006 during the administration of George W. Bush, but which has languished in the US Congress.
"We've been working on getting a green light for this to go to Congress for five years, and we got that green light today," said Santos, who expressed confidence that Congress will approve the pact.
"We believe that we have the votes," he said, noting that Congress is expected to take up the pact April 22.
Santos said the agreement is "important not just because of our foreign trade, but also because of our relationship with the United States."
The plan requires a reform of the Colombian penal code by June 15 to criminalize actions that violate labor rights, and the assignment of 95 investigators to those kinds of cases by December.
The White House said the free trade agreement will expand US exports to Colombia by more than $1.1 billion, giving key US goods and services duty-free access to sectors ranging from manufacturing to agriculture.
Obama said the action plan was "consistent with our values and interests but more importantly consistent with President Santos' vision of a just and equitable society inside Colombia."
The ratification, however, would involve two other free-trade agreements awaiting approval -- one with South Korea and another with Panama.
The US administration, which did not push negotiations on those three fronts during its first two years in office, changed course in late 2010, when Obama said he wanted to reach a trade deal with South Korea.
But Republicans, after taking control of the US House of Representatives, said the fate of the three treaties were inseparable, and that they all had to be submitted for ratification by July 1.
Santos said that by April 22, when he expects Congress to take up the measure, his government will begin implementing the action plan.
Colombia ranks poorly among countries worldwide in labor freedom and violence against union leaders. Last year, 26 trade unionists were killed in Colombia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Of 19 million workers in Colombia, 800,000 are unionized and only 70,000 are covered by collective bargaining agreements.
In Bogota on Thursday, the country's main unions reiterated their opposition to the agreement, despite the government's commitment to strengthen union rights.
They say the pact doesn't create new jobs and would hurt the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
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