BILL ANALYSIS
AJR 27
Page 1
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AJR 27 (Torrico)
As Amended May 3, 2010
Majority vote
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 4-2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|Ayes:|V. Manuel Perez, Beall, | | |
| |Block, Salas | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
|Nays:|Logue, Bill Berryhill | | |
| | | | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY : Memorializes Congress that the California Legislature
opposes the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement
(CTPA), which was signed on November 22, 2006, and is currently
being reviewed by the Office of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR). Among other things, the resolution
declares that:
1)Violence against trade unionists persists to this day, with
over 500 unionists having been murdered during the
administration of current Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
2)The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia has secured
convictions in only about 5% of the over 2,700 cases of murder
of trade unionists, and in the vast majority of cases, the
person convicted of the crime is not the originator of the
crime, but rather carried out the order to kill.
3)Defamatory remarks regarding trade unionists and human rights
defenders in Colombia delegitimize the important and valued
work of human rights defenders and place individuals and
entire organizations at the grave risk of physical
retaliation.
4)According to a 2008 Human Rights Watch report, numerous
politicians, including members of the Colombian Congress, have
come under criminal investigation for collaborating with
paramilitaries--the groups responsible for the majority of
crimes against trade unionists.
AJR 27
Page 2
5)According to Human Rights Watch, there is overwhelming
evidence of broad, systematic, and illegal surveillance
conducted by the government of Colombia against hundreds of
members of human rights organizations, political opposition
parties and unions, as well as journalists, and even clergy.
6)The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial
Executions, Phillip Alston, recently found that killings of
innocent civilians by the armed forces have occurred
throughout the country.
FISCAL EFFECT : None
COMMENTS:
1)Author's purpose: "Across the globe there continue to be
civil struggles that impact our daily lives in the United
States. This resolution is about fundamental workers' rights.
It's about international trade and the excessive power of
corporations and about justice.
"In Colombia, those who advocate for worker rights must fear
for their lives. Over 500 unionists have been murdered during
the administration of current Colombian President Alvaro
Uribe. The Office of the Attorney General of Colombia has
secured convictions in just 5% percent of the murder cases
involving trade unionists and only after international
pressure to do so.
"Paramilitary organizations associated with powerful local and
regional economic and political interests make the threat of
death all too real for workers who are simply exercising their
right to organize, bargain collectively, and, if necessary, to
strike.
"Human rights violations frequently occur and there is
widespread, systematic, illegal surveillance conducted by the
national intelligence of Colombia. The International Labor
Organization says Colombia's labor laws fall far short of
minimum labor standards.
"The Colombia Free Trade agreement was signed on Nov. 22, 2006
and is currently under review by the USTR. Those of us who
are friends of labor must unite and urge Congress to oppose
AJR 27
Page 3
this trade agreement. It is the right and just thing to do.
It is imperative that we send a message to Congress and other
countries that we do not support doing business with a country
who commit unjust crimes."
U.S. trade policy: The U.S. Constitution grants the federal
government the power to enter into treaties and trade
agreements. The power, however, is vested in the U.S.
Congress to ratify trade agreements with a two-thirds vote of
approval. The U.S. has trade agreements in force with 17
countries including Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Costa
Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, and
Singapore. Congressional approval has not been provided for
trade agreements with Colombia , Korea, and Panama. Canada has
also negotiated, but not ratified, a trade agreement with
Colombia.
Besides trade agreements, the U.S. has a number of trade
preference programs that allow special access to U.S. markets
for countries that are considered developing markets and/or
where the U.S. wants to develop a stronger relationship.
Colombia currently has access to U.S. markets through the
nation's general preference provisions and the Andean Trade
Preference Act (ATPA). The ATPA (enacted in 1991) is designed
to assist Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru in their fight
against drug production and trafficking by expanding their
economic alternatives.
In addition to trade support, the U.S. funds Plan Colombia, a
multi-year initiative to reduce drug trafficking and promote
development. According to the Congressional Research Bureau,
more than $7 billion has been provided to Colombia (2000 to
2009) pursuant to this initiative.
2)Policy issue: The Colombian government states, and it is
generally corroborated by such groups as the World Trade
Organization, that Colombia has made meaningful progress in
reducing violence and improving the economy since President
Uribe took office in 2002. The policy question is, however,
whether progress is sufficient or are there certain basic
standards of civil society and human rights that must be
achieved in order for the U.S. to fully embrace a nation as a
free trade partner.
AJR 27
Page 4
Opponents of the resolution, including the Government of
Colombia, believe that demonstrated progress is sufficient.
International trade organization leaders, such as Christy
Thornton, executive director of the North American Congress on
Latin America, have been quoted as saying that the CTPA
represents not just a more open market for U.S. goods but a
reward offered by the Bush Administration to one of the U.S.'s
last allies in Latin America.
The supporters of AJR 27, however, believe that while progress
should be commended, civil society in Colombia has not yet
achieved the conditions under which the U.S. should move
forward on a trade agreement. The AFL-CIO, in its formal
comments to the USTR on CTPA, in September 2009, state that
many of the roots of the political, economic and social crisis
in Colombia remain, that a country needs to first meet some
set of minimum standards prior to the U.S. entering into an
agreement, and offers a suggestion for moving forward. The
recommendation is to have the U.S. commit to closely monitor
Colombia's efforts over the next three years. At the close of
that time period, if Colombia has met the benchmarks on human
rights and labor laws, then the U.S. Congress could review the
agreement to determine whether it is a fair agreement in
interest of the people of the U.S. while promoting economic
development in Colombia. If Colombia has not met the
objectives in both law and in practice, the U.S. could still
agree to annually review its progress and move forward once
standards are met.
3)Background on Columbia: Colombia has a population of over
43.6 million who helped to generate $400 billion in gross
domestic product in 2009. CIA Fact Book, which provides
national profiles on countries, reports that Colombia's
economy has experienced positive growth over the past five
years despite the ongoing armed conflict. While violence has
been decreasing since about 2002, the CIA Fact Book states
that there are still attacks against civilians and large
swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence or
contested by security forces.
Foreign direct investment hit a record $10 billion in 2008 due
to, according to the CIA Fact Book, a series of pro-business
and open market reforms advanced by President Uribe and the
AJR 27
Page 5
opportunities provided by the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug
Eradication Act.
4)Human rights violations: The United Nations' Office of the
High Commisioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has had an official
presence in Colombia since 1997. The Colombia OHCHR office
plays a number of roles, including serving as an observer and
reporter on human rights and international humanitarian law
violations. In addition to the country level-efforts of the
OHCHR, the Human Rights Council of the General Assembly of the
United Nations has sent representatives to Colombia to assess
conditions.
Most recently, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights defenders, i.e. people who advocate for human
rights, released a summary report on her September 2009 onsite
review. During the trip, she met with senior government
officials, human rights defenders and people in the
communities. In her findings, she acknowledges that Colombia
has made significant progress in improving the overall
security of the country between 2002, when President Uribe
took office, and 2008, including having a measurable decrease
in the number of homicides.
She also states, however, that she is deeply concerned about
the widespread phenomenon of threats being made against human
rights defenders (including unionists) and their families,
often through pamphlets, obituaries, emails, phone calls and
text messages. She states that she received numerous accounts
of threats in all places she visited in the country. This
phenomenon has reportedly worsened since the beginning of 2009
and this fact was corroborated to her by the Head of the
National Police.
The report specially addresses the plight of trade unionists
and the increased threats and especially the continued
practice of "enforced disappearance and execution." Also
included in the report are concerns raised about the treatment
of indigenous leaders; Afro-Colombian leaders; activists for
displaced persons; women human rights defenders; journalists;
youth activists; church workers; lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender; and magistrates.
Her report concludes with 25 recommendations for improving the
AJR 27
Page 6
safety of human rights defenders, including such things as
"the Government should fully guarantee that personnel assigned
to the protection of human rights defenders do not gather
information for intelligence purposes" and "the
Attorney-General's Office should review all criminal
investigations against human rights defenders, close
immediately all cases found to be baseless, and prosecute
State officials, including prosecutors, who maliciously
investigated defenders."
Her recommendation to the international community is that it
should continue monitoring the situation of human rights
defenders, in particular the most targeted and vulnerable
ones, and to express support for the work of the human rights
defenders, among other venues, before international and
regional human rights compliance mechanisms.
5)Concern for Colombian workers: International labor leaders
and those in the U.S. and California have repeatedly raised
concerns that the Colombian government does not have
sufficient laws, nor does it systematically enforce the laws
it does have, in order to protect the rights and lives of
trade unionists.
In addition to the 48 trade unionists that have been murdered
in 2009, the labor leaders have stated that the Colombian
government has been extremely slow to arrest and bring to
trial the people who were responsible for the more than 2,700
murders of Colombian trade unionists since 1986. Many of
those that have been tried have been tried in abstentia,
resulting in no real justice for those who have suffered at
their hands.
Labor organizations say they can support trade if the terms of
the agreement are fair and create good opportunities for
workers in both countries. However, they believe that the
U.S. should not commit to deep and more permanent economic
integration, by way of a comprehensive trade agreement, with a
country with such a poor record on trade union and human
rights. These matters must be addressed as a precondition to
evaluating the trade agreement on its own merits. Union
leaders in the U.S. are strongly opposed to an affirmative
vote on the Colombia FTA.
AJR 27
Page 7
6)California's trade-based economy: International trade is a
very important component of California's $1.8 trillion
economy, exporting $120 billion in goods in 2009 to over 200
counties. If California were a country, it would be the 11th
largest exporter in the world.
By comparison, Colombia's $400 billion economy supported the
importation of $11.3 billion of U.S. products in 2008. Top
imports from all countries to Colombia include industrial
equipment, transportation equipment, consumer goods,
chemicals, paper, and fuels. In 2009, $319.8 million in goods
from California were exported to Colombia.
----------------------------------------------------------
| California Exports to Colombia in 2009 |
----------------------------------------------------------
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
| Product | Value ($) | Percent |
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|334 _Computers & | | 30.3%|
|Electronic Prod. | | |
| |96,813,070 | |
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|325 _Chemical | 41,425,146| 13%|
|Manufactures | | |
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|336 _Transportation | 38,276,120| 12%|
|Equipment | | |
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|324 Petroleum & Coal | 31,884,175| 10%|
|Products | | |
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|All Others | 111,402,388| 34%|
|------------------------+------------------+--------------|
|Total | 319,800,899| 100%|
----------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
|Source: TradeStats Express |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------
Supporters of the CTPA state that the agreement offers
tremendous opportunities for California exporters. Most
AJR 27
Page 8
significantly, they cite a number of tariffs, which will be
immediately eliminated (80%); the remaining tariffs will be
phased out over 10 years. Based on information from the U.S.
Department of Commerce, the following are examples of current
tariffs and their proposed reductions under CTPA:
a) Computers and electronic products : Current tariffs are
between 8 and 15%. The CTPA covers 100% of U.S. exports
under the Information Technology Agreement, which will
receive 100% duty free treatment immediately upon the
effective date of the CTPA.
b) Chemical manufacturers : Current tariffs are between 8
and 20%. Upon the effective date of the CTPA, 82% of U.S.
chemical exports will receive duty free treatment, with the
remaining tariffs being phased out over 10 years. Examples
of chemical and related products include pharmaceuticals,
cosmetics, fertilizers, and agrochemicals. Strong economic
opportunities cited in the literature include chloride,
styrene, and polyethylene.
c) Agricultural products : Upon the effective date of the
CTPA, 53% of tariffs on agricultural products will receive
duty free treatment. As an example, this includes 100%
elimination of the price band system that results in
tariffs as high as 159% on U.S. dairy products. All
Colombian duties on U.S. dairy products will be eliminated
in 15 years.
7)Additional information: The policy committee analysis
includes additional background and analysis of AJR 27.
Analysis Prepared by : Toni Symonds / J., E.D. & E. / (916)
319-2090
FN: 0004126