Full Text of the Agreement English. Full Text of the Agreement Spanish. ITC Report. Interim Environmental Review. The Second Anniversary of the U. The U. Benefits of the U. For this purpose, Colombia has initiated efforts to achieve sanitary access, considering that certain products that the country has the capacity to export, such as pineapple and mangoes, require prior sanitary approval by the Israeli authorities.
It is important to note that this is the first FTA in which Israel includes commitments in trade in services and investment. Provisions on financial services, telecommunications and the temporary entry of those providing services were included. Furthermore, the agreement prohibits quantitative restrictions in terms of assets, operations, employed personnel and arrangements to improve the recognition of professional titles and licenses, among others. Ultimately, the FTA establishes a schedule for the gradual reduction of customs duties which foresees that all remaining goods will be exempt from such payment within an established time period of up to ten years, as from the date of implementation of the FTA.
In this sense, this agreement represents an opportunity for the parties to explore new markets and foster the creation of new value chains. The Colombian government submitted documents to the United States in time to meet various target dates listed in the Action Plan. At the time of the debate, U. Critics of the agreement expressed concerns about violence against union members and the lack of protection of worker rights in Colombia, especially in labor cooperatives.
Labor unions in general remain highly opposed to the agreement. The United States is Colombia's leading trade partner. To address the concerns related to labor rights and violence in Colombia, the United States and Colombia agreed upon an "Action Plan Related to Labor Rights" that included specific and concrete steps to be taken by the Colombian government with specific timelines.
They argue that Colombia's labor movement is under attack through violence, intimidation, and harassment, as well as legal challenges. It is a comprehensive free trade agreement FTA between the United States and Colombia that eventually will eliminate tariffs and other barriers in bilateral trade in goods and services. During the th Congress, President Obama submitted the draft legislation on October 3, that was then introduced by request in both houses of Congress H.
The Senate passed the legislation on the same day. The President signed the legislation into law on October 21, P. The FTA entered into force after several months of work by both governments to review each other's laws and regulations related to implementation of the agreement, in addition to Colombia's efforts to fulfill its set of commitments under the Action Plan Related to Labor Rights. After negotiators failed to reach an agreement, Colombia continued negotiations with the United States for a bilateral FTA.
The two countries signed the agreement on November 22, The Colombian Congress approved the agreement in June and again in October , after the agreement was modified to include new labor and environmental provisions.
Since the s, the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean have been a focus of U. After , U. It went into effect on October 31, The major expectation among proponents of the free trade agreement with Colombia, as with other trade agreements, is that it provides economic benefits for both the United States and Colombia as trade expands between the two countries.
Another expectation among proponents is that it helps improve investor confidence and increase foreign direct investment in Colombia, which may bring more economic stability. For Colombia, a free trade agreement with the United States has been part of the country's overall development strategy and efforts to promote economic growth and stability. Before the U.
Most of Colombia's duties on U. Table 1. Colombian Tariff Rates on U. Products before the U. Source: U. Notes: Does not include tariff lines with base rate value of blanks. Total of 6, tariff lines includes 5, industrial and textile tariff lines and agricultural tariff lines.
Table 1 provides a summary of Colombian tariffs on goods coming from the United States before the free trade agreement entered into force. Other agricultural products fell under the Andean Price Band System APBS , a system in which Colombia applied a variable levy on imports by increasing tariffs when world prices fall, and lowering tariffs when world prices rise.
However, upon entry into force of the U. The comprehensive free trade agreement was reached after numerous rounds of negotiations over a period of nearly two years. Some issues that took longer to resolve were related to agriculture. Colombia had been seeking lenient agriculture provisions in the agreement, arguing that the effects of liberalization on rural regions could have adverse effects on smaller farmers and drive them to coca production.
The United States agreed to give more sensitive sectors longer phase-out periods to allow Colombia more time to adjust to trade liberalization. Sectors receiving the longest phase-out periods include poultry and rice. This section summarizes several key provisions in the original agreement text as provided by the United States Trade Representative USTR , unless otherwise noted.
Upon entry into force, the U. Tariff elimination for major sectors includes the following:. Prior to the FTA entering into force, Colombia applied some tariff protection on all agricultural products. Colombia will eliminate most other tariffs on agricultural products within 15 years, by The agreement also provides duty-free tariff rate quotas on standard beef, chicken leg quarters, dairy products, corn, sorghum, animal feeds, rice, and soybean oil.
However, if the rates under the price band system result in a lower rate than that given under the FTA, the United States will be allowed to sell the product to Colombia at the lower rates. Under the agreement, Colombia agreed to join the World Trade Organization's Information Technology Agreement ITA , and remove its tariff and non-tariff barriers to information technology products.
Colombia agreed to allow trade in remanufactured goods, which increases export and investment opportunities for U. In textiles and apparel, products that meet the agreement's rules of origin requirements received duty-free and quota-free treatment immediately upon entry into force.
The United States and Colombia have cooperation commitments under the agreement that allow for verification of claims of origin or preferential treatment, and denial of preferential treatment or entry if the claims cannot be verified.
The rules of origin requirements are generally based on the yarn-forward standard to encourage production and economic integration. A "de minimis" provision allows limited amounts of specified third-country content to go into U. A special textile safeguard provides for temporary tariff relief if imports prove to be damaging to domestic producers.
In government procurement contracts, the two countries agreed to grant non-discriminatory rights to bid on government contracts. These provisions cover the purchases of Colombia's ministries and departments, as well as its legislature and courts.
In services trade, the two countries agreed to market access in most services sectors, with very few exceptions. Colombia agreed to exceed commitments made in the WTO and to remove significant services and investment barriers, such as requirements that U. Colombia also agreed to eliminate requirements to establish a branch in order to provide a service and unfair penalties imposed on U. Portfolio managers are allowed to provide portfolio management services to both mutual funds and pension funds in the partner country, including to funds that manage privatized social security accounts.
Investment provisions are designed to help establish a stable legal framework for foreign investors from the partner country.
All forms of investment are protected, including enterprises, debt, concessions and similar contracts, and intellectual property. Protections for U. In the preamble of the agreement, the United States and Colombia agreed that foreign investors would not be accorded greater substantive rights with respect to investment protections than domestic investors under domestic law.
The agreement provides intellectual property rights IPR protections for U. In all categories of IPR, U. In trademark protection, the agreement requires the two countries to have a system for resolving disputes about trademarks used in internet domain names; to develop an on-line system for the registration and maintenance of trademarks and have a searchable database; and to have transparent procedures for trademark registration.
In protection of copyrighted works, the agreement has a number of provisions for protection of copyrighted works in a digital economy, including provisions that copyright owners will maintain rights over temporary copies of their works on computers. Other agreement provisions include rights for copyright owners for making their work available on-line; extended terms of protection for copyrighted works; requirements for governments to use only legitimate computer software; rules on encrypted satellite signals to prevent piracy of satellite television programming; and rules for the liability of Internet service providers for copyright infringement.
In protection of patents and trade secrets, the U. In protection of test data and trade secrets, the agreement protects products against unfair commercial use for a period of 5 years for pharmaceuticals and 10 years for agricultural chemicals. In addition, the agreement requires the establishment of procedures to prevent marketing of pharmaceutical products that infringe patents, and provides protection for newly developed plant varieties.
The parties expressed their understanding that the intellectual property chapter would not prevent either party from taking measures to protect public health by promoting access to medicines for all. On music and motion picture property piracy, the agreement's IPR provisions include penalties for piracy and counterfeiting and criminalize end-user piracy. It requires the parties to authorize the seizure, forfeiture, and destruction of counterfeit and pirated goods and the equipment used to produce them.
The agreement mandates both statutory and actual damages for copyright infringement and trademark piracy. This is to ensure that monetary damages could be awarded even if a monetary value to the violation is difficult to assess. The agreement includes comprehensive rules of origin provisions to ensure that only U. The agreement also includes customs procedures provisions, including requirements for transparency and efficiency, procedural certainty and fairness, information sharing, and special procedures for the release of express delivery shipments.
The labor and worker rights obligations are included in the core text of the agreement. The two countries agreed to adopt, maintain and enforce laws that incorporate core internationally recognized labor rights, as stated in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work , including a prohibition on the worst forms of child labor.
The parties also agreed to enforce labor laws with acceptable conditions of work, hours of work, and occupational safety and health. All obligations of the labor chapter are subject to the same dispute settlement procedures and enforcement mechanisms as other chapters of the agreement.
The agreement includes procedural guarantees to ensure that workers and employers have fair, equitable, and transparent access to labor tribunals or courts. It has a labor cooperation and capacity building mechanism to pursue bilateral or regional cooperation activities, which may include the principles embodied in the ILO Declaration and activities to promote compliance with ILO Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.
The United States and Colombia agreed to cooperate on activities on laws and practices related to ILO labor standards; the ILO convention on the worst forms of child labor; methods to improve labor administration and enforcement of labor laws; social dialogue and alternative dispute resolution; occupational safety and health compliance; and mechanisms and best practices on protecting the rights of migrant workers. The environmental obligations are included in the core text of the agreement.
The agreement requires the United States and Colombia to effectively enforce their own domestic environmental laws and to adopt, maintain, and implement laws and all other measures to fulfill obligations under covered multilateral environmental agreements MEAs.
Both countries committed to pursue high levels of environmental protection and to not derogate from environmental laws in a manner that will weaken or reduce protections. The agreement includes procedural guarantees to ensure fair, equitable, and transparent proceedings for the administration and enforcement of environmental laws. In addition, the agreement includes provisions to help promote voluntary, market-based mechanisms to protect the environment and to ensure that views of civil society are appropriately considered through a public submissions process.
All obligations in the environmental chapter of the agreement are subject to the same dispute settlement procedures and enforcement mechanisms as obligations in other chapters of the agreement. The core obligations of the agreement, including labor and environmental provisions, are subject to dispute settlement provisions.
The agreement's provisions on dispute panel proceedings include language to help promote openness and transparency through open public hearings; public release of legal submissions by parties; and opportunities for interested third parties to submit views.
The provisions require the parties to make every attempt, through cooperation and consultations, to arrive at a mutually satisfactory resolution of a dispute. If the parties are unable to settle the dispute through consultations, the complaining party will have the right to request an independent arbitral panel to help resolve the dispute. Possible outcomes could include monetary penalties or a suspension of trade benefits. In early , some Members of Congress indicated that some of the provisions in pending U.
FTAs would have to be strengthened to gain their approval, particularly relating to core labor standards. After several months of negotiation, bipartisan congressional leadership and the Bush Administration reached an understanding on May 10, , on a new bipartisan trade framework that calls for the inclusion of internationally recognized labor rights and environmental provisions in the text of pending free trade agreements.
On June 28, , the United States reached an agreement with Colombia on legally binding amendments to the U. The amendments to the FTA are similar to the amendments that were made to the U. Some of the key amendments include obligations related to five basic ILO labor rights, multilateral environmental agreements MEAs , and pharmaceutical intellectual property rights IPR.
These provisions would be enforceable through the FTA's dispute settlement mechanism. On October 30, , the Colombian Senate approved the labor and environmental amendments to the U. After the bipartisan agreement, the Administration reached an agreement with Colombia to amend the FTA to require the parties to "adopt, maintain and enforce in their own laws and in practice" the five basic internationally recognized labor principles, as stated in the ILO Declaration.
The amendments to the agreement strengthened the earlier labor provisions which only required the signatories to strive to ensure that their domestic laws would provide for labor standards consistent with internationally recognized labor principles. The amendments that resulted from the bipartisan trade framework were intended to enhance the protection and promotion of worker rights by including enforceable ILO core labor principles in the agreement.
These include 1 freedom of association; 2 the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; 3 the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labor; 4 the effective abolition of child labor and a prohibition on the worst forms of child labor; and 5 the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Another change to the agreement relates to labor law enforcement. A decision made by a signatory on the distribution of enforcement resources would not be a reason for not complying with the labor provisions. Under the amended provisions, parties would not be allowed to derogate from labor obligations in a manner affecting trade or investment.
Labor obligations would be subject to the same dispute settlement, same enforcement mechanisms, and same criteria for selection of enforcement mechanisms as all other obligations in the agreement. Table of Contents EN. Electronic Commerce. Excluded Products. Processed Agricultural Products. Fish and Other Marine Products. Rules of Origin. Introductory Notes. List Rules. Movement Certificate EUR. Origin Declaration.
Mutual Assistance. Trade Facilitation. Dismantling of Import Duties. Export Duties. Import and Export Restrictions. Recognition of Qualifications of Service Suppliers.
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