U.S., COLOMBIA TO ANNOUNCE LONG-AWAITED FREE TRADE DEAL

Washington, April 6 (AP)- The United States and Colombia are expected to announce a deal on an important free trade pact Wednesday, three people close to the agreement said, ending a years-long stalemate over the highly-coveted pact.

An agreement appeared to have come together during weeks of intense negotiations in Washington and Bogota, focused in part on Colombia's strengthening its protection of unions and labor leaders.

U.S Trade Representative Ron Kirk told a House committee Tuesday that the two sides had made "very strong progress" in addressing U.S. worries over workers' rights in Colombia.

The deal largely would open up the Colombian markets for American goods without many of the duties that now exist. Officials have estimated the deal could increase U.S. exports to Colombia by $1 billion per year, creating jobs in the United States and business opportunities for American companies.

The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced formally.

The Colombia deal has become a political bargaining chip for congressional Republicans, who have threatened to block the confirmation of a new Commerce Secretary and hold up final passage of another trade deal, with South Korea, if the administration did not also send lawmakers a final deal with Colombia, as well as another pending agreement with Panama.

Republican leaders, including House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, have personally appealed to President Barack Obama to complete the Colombia and Panama deals, arguing that they would create jobs in the U.S. and help boost the economy. The administration contended that issues remained to be resolved, including the labor issues with Colombia and tax concerns with Panama.

With the Colombia deal complete, and U.S. officials claiming progress in talks with Panama, the administration appears to be hoping it can push Republicans to drop their blockade of the South Korea agreement, America's largest proposed trade pact in more than a decade. When the U.S. and South Korea completed the deal in December, the Obama administration said it would support tens of thousands of jobs and increase exports of U.S. goods by at least $10 billion.

The U.S. signed the South Korea, Colombia and Panama deals in 2007, under President George W. Bush, but the agreements do not go into effect until Congress has approved them. Democrats who then controlled Congress never brought the agreements up for a vote, creating the space for the Obama administration to renegotiate areas of the deals they had found objectionable.

Bush campaigned fervently for the Colombia deal, warning Congress that failure to approve a deal would cast the United States as untrustworthy and impotent across South America.

"If Congress were to reject the agreement with Colombia, we would validate antagonists in Latin America, who would say that America cannot be trusted to stand by its friends," Bush said in a 2008 speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Obama has made trade a central part of his economic agenda, in part because he sees it as a way to boost U.S. exports and jobs and because it is an area where the administration believes it can get Republican support. Republicans generally have supported trade agreements.

Pressure to complete the Colombia deal, however, has been mounting within Obama's own party. Democratic Sens. Max Baucus of Montana and John Kerry of Massachusetts said in an editorial Monday that further delay would cause Colombia to send its business elsewhere.

"Each day we fail to act costs American jobs and sales," they wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

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