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Lucas Fox examines first-hand potential impact of Colombia Free Trade Agreement

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Fox pictured with children in La Sierra. The children followed the WFP delegation throughout the village.

Rising junior international business and finance major, Lucas Fox, traveled to Colombia in May with a Witness for Peace (WFP) delegation to examine the possible impact of the proposed U.S.-Colombian Free Trade Agreement on the Colombian people. Fox included his findings in a formal report upon his return.

His findings? The Free Trade Agreement will be advantageous for U.S. companies, but could be detrimental to indigenous peoples, labor unions, and small farmers in the South American country.

"As an international business major, I feel that many of my fellow IB students often lose track of social justice when studying the benefits of our globalized world," Fox says in his report. His concern is that students turned international businessmen, "go straight from the classroom to the boardroom without experiencing the most important aspect of business - the human factor."

Fox traveled with a delegation of 11 other students from Columbia. "Meetings ranged," he says, "from the heavily guarded United States Embassy in Bogotá to a small coffee farm a half-day's walk from a dirt road in the middle of the Andes Mountains." The group met with leaders of the three most powerful indigenous organizations, and "it was evident that the leaders believed the passage of the free trade agreement with the United States would begin to eliminate the sovereignty that they currently enjoy."

One fear is that indigenous lands rich with oil, coal, and fresh water will be exploited by multinational corporations (MNCs). Just last summer, Fox says, four U.S. oil contractors and one Colombian government representative were found surveying deep within indigenous territory. Another concern centers around pharmaceutical companies patenting indigenous medicinal formulas without giving proper credit or compensation.

Small farmers, or "campesinos," Fox says, "arguably have the most to lose if the FTA passes." The heavily subsidized U.S. agribusiness has an unfair advantage and could potentially flood the Colombian market with cheaper goods, he says in his report.

There are advantages to free trade with the United States. Some indigenous leaders answered cell phones during their meetings with the WFP delegation, and Colombians know that access to the Internet and other technologies could make them more competitive in the global economy and raise the standard of living.

The key is enforcement of protections. "By negotiating detailed enforceable contracts with MNCs," Fox concludes, "the indigenous population would be able to maintain their sovereignty while sharing in the profits that will allow them to obtain technology...[and] better position [them] to embrace the future."

Gail Crouch
July 2007