CTPA is a comprehensive agreement that will eliminate tariffs and other barriers to trade in goods and services between the United States and Colombia,[1] including government procurement, investment, telecommunications, electronics commerce, intellectual property rights, and labor and environmental protection[2] The United States Congress.
President Obama tasked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative with seeking a path to address outstanding issues surrounding the Colombia FTA.
[5][7] U.S. agricultural exports benefiting under the agreement include beef and pork products, wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton.
[1] Since late 2006, U.S. products have been charged more than $3.4 billion in Colombian tariffs and duties that otherwise would have been eliminated by the free trade agreement.
[7] The U.S. International Trade Commission estimates that the agreement would boost U.S. exports to Colombia by an additional $1.1 billion per year.
After, based on "the New Trade Policy Template", a bipartisan agreement, both countries negotiated a Protocol of Amendment that was signed on June 28, 2007.
The Bill was approved in a joint session on August 29, 2007, and voted by the House Floor on September 25, 2007 (Yeas 84, Nays 3).
[11] U.S. Congress' failure to secure approval of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement has adversely affected bilateral relations between the two nations.
An aid program for displaced workers called Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) was also included in the bill.
[1] In agriculture, the agreement would grant duty-free treatment immediately to certain farm products from both countries, including high quality beef, cotton, wheat, and soybean meal.
The United States and Colombia worked together to resolve sanitary and phytosanitary barriers to trade in agriculture, including food safety inspection procedures for beef, pork, and poultry.
These commitments are reportedly written in two separate side letters on sanitary and phytosanitary measures that would be attached to the FTA.
Conservative Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who signed a Canada - Colombia agreement that took effect in August 2011, has accused opponents of trade deals with the country as "standing in the way of the development of the prosperity of Colombia," adding that "we can't block the progress of a country like this for protectionist reasons and try to use human rights as a front for doing that.