Wich are the advantages and disadvantages tha FTA generates?

Advantages
General Benefits
Consumers will be one of the groups most benefited by this treaty. In all segments
of the economy consumers will have greater options in terms of quality and price,
which will increase the purchasing power of Colombians.
Some sectors benefitedA) Farming
-Flowers: The FTA guarantees stable and duty-free access to the United States for
Colombian flowers that in the absence of the agreement and the tariff preferences
must pay a tariff of more than 6%. This sector depends totally on exports and
generates more than 200 thousand jobs in Colombia.
-Accar: This is one of the products of greater potential of offensive of Colombia
and of greater protection in the USA. NAFTA will significantly increase the
Colombian export quota This quota includes some industrial products with sugar
content that are part of the program of productive transformation.
- Dairy products: Colombia will get a preferential access quota for dairy products,
most of which are concentrated in cheeses, our greatest export potential. They
also have a significant weight in the quota butters and other dairy products like
flavored milks. The health provisions will allow these commercial opportunities to
materialize in the short term.
-Tabaco: FTA consolidates and improves access to the United States of tobacco
and its products. In cigarettes will obtain a rule of origin that during the first years
will allow to mix raw materials from third countries while the national supply
reaches the required level. A preferential quota was obtained without tariffs and a
15-year relief. This product is of great importance for rural employment since it
generates 250 jobs per ton produced and there are areas that produce up to two
tons per hectare.
-Other products benefited: The Colombian meat sector will also benefit from
greater real access to the United States market as well as the fruit and vegetable
sector which has shown great potential in other agreements with Latin American
countries
B) Industrial
-Sector Textile, clothing, design and fashion: The FTA guarantees stable access to
the US market in this world-class sector. In the case of garments, the uncertainty
generated by the short ATPDEA renewals has negatively impacted the exports of
this sector which, without preferential access, must pay tariffs of up to 30%. Of
note is the improvement in rules of origin against the ATPDEA and the access that
will obtain the clothing line for the household is not included in the tariff
preferences.
- Alternative energy: USA Has a growing demand for fuels obtained from sources
other than oil. For Colombia it is very important to consolidate the preferences
included in the ATPDEA regarding ethanol and open access for fuels generated
from the palm. FTA consolidates the market that has emerged for the Colombian
export of fuel oil, a product derived from petroleum, of which the United States
imports more than US $ 50 billion a year. In addition, a flexible standard of origin
has been achieved, allowing the incorporation of raw materials from countries not
members of the agreement.
-Other sectors: Other sectors that will benefit from a permanent elimination of
tariffs and the improvement of the conditions for investment in Colombia will be
fishing, auto parts (both included in the program of productive transformation),
leather, footwear, plastics, porcelain industries And jewelry.
C) Services
In general terms, the greatest potential for the use of the FTA in services is the
graphic industry, software and information technologies, the outsourcing of
business processes and health tourism, all sectors included in the Productive
transformation program.

Disadvantages

The treaty is harmful to agriculture.

Causing poverty, disappearance of national production and loss of food
sovereignty. What would lead to these results, according to the opposition, is that
agricultural imports, especially those of food, are presumed to be increased, the
remaining crops in Colombia, such as wheat, barley and maize, will be eliminated
in Colombia (currently more than three Millions of tonnes per year) and the rice,
soybeans, sorghum, beans and other legumes in. Cotton, cane, potatoes, oil palm,
chicken, and meat would also be threatened because competition with the United
States should be made with highly subsidized products, thus losing food capacity.
Deindustrialization.
The competition with the importation of goods, will make disappear, the metal-
mechanic industry, of confecciones, of footwear; Today Colombia, has less industry
than fourteen years ago.
Less and worse jobs.
The argument is based on competition with cheap labor, lower wages, fewer
unions and less labor guarantees, caused by deindustrialization of the country,
labor flexibility, loss of labor granite, pension, social security, family allowance,
boxes Of compensation, the disappearance of the labor contract of work, with a
reduction of formal employment and increase of informality.
Increased poverty and increased costs of public utilities.
Poverty caused by the bankruptcy of the productive apparatus, the reduction of
state resources, public service subsidies, education, health, transport and
consumption of essential goods will increase to levels of 60%. The construction of
popular housing, hospital and public schools will be eliminated, giving responsibility
to the private sector.
Excavation of public services by the privatization of these, which will be delivered
to multinationals.
Low quality education.
The needs of education will be directed towards the development of technological
education, abandoning the emphasis on higher education, postgraduates and
masters essential for the development of research. The adoption of programs of
study and professional development criteria, ruled by North American employers,
make it impossible for education to contribute to national development.
We could say that this is the axis of arguments, that manages the opposition with
respect to the approval of the FTA, from which many other equally unfavorable
arguments emerge.

Wich ate the objectives that Colombia has in these negotiations?

Objectives of the FTA
Promote conditions for fair competition.
Increasing investment opportunities.
Provide adequate protection of intellectual property rights.
Establish effective procedures for the implementation of the FTA and for the
settlement of disputes.
Foster trilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation, among other friendly
countries.
Eliminate barriers that affect or reduce trade.
Offer a solution to disputes.
Establish effective processes to stimulate national production.
These objectives will be achieved through compliance with NAFTA principles and
rules, such as national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment and procedural
transparency.

Do you think FTA is the best option for a country like Colombia to create job
opportunities and to grow worldwide?
Colombia currently has 13 trade agreements in effect, five in negotiation and one in
the process of approval. Despite the many complaints, experts agree that the
future of domestic trade is to continue with them.
Different unions, leaders, employers and even trade unions have opposed the
continuation, approval or negotiation of the Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with
arguments in which they expose that these agreements violate their rights and
labor guarantees and that the national industry only Would go backwards with its
implementation. They assert that the FTAs accentuate the productive decline of
"decent" employment in the country prioritizing the primary export model. On the
other hand, they point out that the signing of trade agreements with nations of high
industrial development will only perpetuate dependence on other markets in the
country, with the agricultural sector and the energy miner being the most affected.