Canada Seeks Colombia Agreement, as U.S. Deal Stalls

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=anLyWaQ6fm_Y&refer=canada

By Theophilos Argitis and Alexandre Deslongchamps

May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's Trade Minister David Emerson said he may soon complete a free trade agreement with Colombia, rejecting a plan by U.S. congressional Democrats to wait until the Latin American nation improves its human rights record.

Emerson said in an interview he's ``cautiously optimistic'' an accord with Colombia can be reached by September. The two countries still need to resolve disagreements on agricultural products, which will require another round of negotiations, he said.

``Democracy is beginning to take root in a meaningful way,'' Emerson, 62, said in a Bloomberg interview in Ottawa yesterday evening. ``We should give them a hand economically.''

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made strengthening ties with Latin America a priority in an effort to broaden markets for Canadian commodities and reduce dependence on a slowing U.S. economy. Harper says the trade accord also will help Colombia stem violence against labor leaders.

An agreement would give Canadian farmers preferential access to the U.S.'s third largest market for wheat exports in Latin America. It also underscores the risks of growing trade protectionism in the U.S. that includes labor union efforts to thwart a trade accord with South Korea, said Jeffrey Schott, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

Wheat Exports

``Colombia is a forward attack to try to pre-empt other agreements from moving forward,'' Schott said in a telephone interview. ``You stop Colombia and you stop Korea.''

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