McCain supports Colombia free trade
Republican presidential candidate John McCain is in Colombia today in support of a free trade deal. Democratic candidate Barack Obama does not support the deal. Dan Grech has more on the specifics of the proposed agreement.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain speaks during a joint press conference with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (background) at a military base in Cartagena, Colombia -- July 2, 2008 (Mauricio Duenas/AFP/Getty Images)
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Scott Jagow: John McCain is in Colombia today. Not South Carolina -- South America. McCain supports a free trade deal with Colombia. Barack Obama does not. Dan Grech has more from our America's Desk at WLRN.
Dan Grech: Trade between the U.S. and Colombia last year was $18 billion. The country is our fourth-largest trading partner in Latin America, and a key political ally.
But a free trade deal with Colombia is stalled in Congress. Democrats, including Obama, say Colombia needs to reduce violence against labor leaders.
Michael Shifter: McCain wants to show that Obama and the Democratic Party are abandoning close allies like Colombia.
That's Michael Shifter with the Inter-American Dialogue. He says the Colombian free trade pact is unlikely to come up for a vote until after the election in November. Building support now will be difficult for McCain.
Shifter: The timing, I think, is unfortunate, given the bad economic news in the United States. And it's unclear whether this is really a winning issue, right now, to talk about the virtues of free trade.
McCain's next stop is Mexico, where he's going to be touting another issue with little political resonance: the war on drugs.
I'm Dan Grech for Marketplace.
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