Conservatives Go it Alone on Free Trade with Colombia

(Dawn Paley — The Dominion)

The Conservative candidate for Vancouver-Centre confirmed Thursday that his party is alone among the four major parties battling it out in Western Canada that supports a free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia.

Trade hasn’t been on the front burner during this campaign, unlike in the US where it is a hot issue. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has stated his opposition to a US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, while Republican John McCain supports the deal.

Conservative hopeful Lorne Mayencourt said that the Canada-Colombia deal was negotiated in a way that is “beneficial to both countries,” and that free trade agreements “can lead to democracies that are really quite good.”

Mayencourt’s position differs from that of the other candidates, who rejected the deal in a morning debate at the University of British Columbia on Thursday.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t trade with Colombia at all, I’m saying we need to look at the terms and the conditions of the negotiation that Mr. Emerson did with Colombia,” said Hedy Fry, the Liberal incumbent in Vancouver-Centre, echoing her party’s position on the deal.

Though the Liberals do not specifically mention the Canada-Colombia agreement in their platform, Liberal leader Stéphane Dion spoke against the deal earlier this week.

“The way it was negotiated by the Conservatives we have no guarantee at all that the basic rights will be respected through this agreement, the workers rights, and so on. It [sic] is why we can not accept it,” he said, speaking Tuesday night at the University of British Colombia.

“A free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia would lead to more displacement, more threats and more violence against unionists, Afro-Colombians and Indigenous peoples,” said George Heyman, past president of the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union, who visited Colombia with other Canadian union leaders in July.

The NDP has taken a strong stance against the deal, responding in part to concerns from the Canadian labour movement. Thirty-eight trade unionists have been killed in Colombia this year alone.

“There are some very serious human rights and labour rights issues in Colombia. The Colombian agreement was done without a view to those important concerns, and it should be renounced,” said Michael Byers, a UBC professor and rookie NDP candidate. Read the complete article.