Andean Trade Programs (ATPDEA and ATPA)

The Andean Trade Partnership and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) provides duty-free trade benefits to the Andean countries of Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. ATPDEA represents an expansion in 2002 of the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA).

Like other U.S. trade preference programs for developing countries (e.g. the Generalized System of Preferences and the Caribbean Basin Initiative), ATPDEA has worker rights provisions that by law condition benefits on the exporting country making progress on respecting internationally-recognized worker rights. These worker rights provisions would be terminated by the passage of the Free Trade Agreements with Andean countries.

Ecuador: USLEAP, along with Human Rights Watch and the AFL-CIO, have urged the U.S. government to enforce the worker rights provisions of the Andean trade programs with respect to Ecuador, especially its need to reform Ecuadorian labor law to enable workers to organize. Ecuador has not yet done so but trade unions in the country are hopeful that a new constitution that would improve worker rights will soon be written.

Before Ecuador was declared eligible for the expanded ATPDEA program in October 2002, the government of Ecuador promised to take steps to address worker rights concerns.  It subsequently failed to do so, prompting USTR to accept worker rights petitions filed by USLEAP, the AFL-CIO, and Human Rights Watch in September 2003.  USLEAP and Human Rights Watch filed similar petitions on Ecuador in 2004 and again in 2005. Letters signed by members of Congress in 2003, 2004 and in 2005 have urged Ecuador to reform labor law, address child labor violations on banana plantations, and end impunity with respect to those who attacked banana workers in 2002. 

After the election of President Rafael Correa in 2006, the government began taking some steps to improve worker rights and in 2008 approved a new constitution that the unions hope will lead to significant labor law reform.  USLEAP has continued to annually file a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative in support of the pending worker rights petitions on Ecuador.  Trade unions in Ecuador supported the original petitions but because of the potential for more progress under the administration of President Rafael Correa, the unions are not seeking suspension of benefits a this time.

Colombia:  Members of Congress have signed letters urging that the government of Colombia address impunity and violence against trade unionists or face possible loss of U.S. trade benefits. However, formal worker rights petitions were not filed on Colombia because some elements of the Colombian trade union movement were opposed to using a U.S. trade law on the grounds that doing so would compromise Colombian sovereignty.  The Free Trade Agreement with Colombia passed in October 2011 will replace the Andean trade preference programs.

Bolivia:   USLEAP joined other advocates in condemning the Bush Administration's decision in late 2008 to suspend duty-free trade benefits for Bolivia, allegedly for failing to curb the drug trade.  Analysts argue that the suspension instead reflected an escalation of diplomatic tensions after Bolivia ordered the U.S. ambassador out of the country on the charge of interfering in internal affairs by meeting with groups seeking to remove President Evo Morales from office.  They point to the fact that in the previous year, Bolivia's coca cultivation had increased by 5%, compared to a 27% increase in Colombia, the biggest beneficiary of U.S aid in the region.