DEMOCRATS' MISGUIDED APPROACH TO FREE TRADE IN COLOMBIA

For seven years, Democrats have rightfully complained that President
Bush has gratuitously antagonized the world, exasperating our allies
and eroding America's standing and influence.

But now the Democrats are doing the same thing on trade. In Latin
America, it is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are seen as the
go-it-alone cowboys, by opposing the United States' free-trade
agreement with Colombia. Some Democrats claim they are against the
pact because Colombia has abused human rights. Those concerns are
legitimate - but they shouldn't be used to punish people like Norma
Reynosa, a 35-year-old woman who just may snip the flowers that go
into the Mother's Day bouquet that you buy.

Human rights aren't abstract to Ms. Reynosa. Two of her relatives
were killed in the brutal warfare and insecurity that plague her home
region in Colombia's south. A third was killed by a land mine, and a
fourth was kidnapped at age 12 to work for guerrillas in the National
Liberation Army, or ELN.

Ms. Reynosa ran a small restaurant but had to flee when the
guerrillas demanded that she pay more extortion money than she could
afford. "They said they would kill us," she recalled. "They didn't
say how. Mostly they just shot people and threw their bodies in the river."

So in June 2005, she and her husband abandoned their home and fled to
the outskirts of the capital to see if they could get jobs in the
booming flower industry. Colombian cities like Medellin were the most
dangerous cities in the world in the 1980s and '90s, but now they are
thriving, and homicide rates are well below those of some American cities.

One reason is those bouquets you buy, entering duty-free from
Colombia. These days Colombia is the world's second-largest exporter
of flowers after the Netherlands, and almost 200,000 people work in
the flower industry. Up to 28 cargo planes a day carry flowers from
Colombia to the U.S.

Better carnations than cocaine, no?

Critics of the free-trade pact worry that it would hurt American
workers. But Colombian goods already enter the U.S. duty-free; what
would change is that American exporters would get access to the
Colombian market.

(Colombia is pushing hard for the pact not because of any immediate
trade benefit but because its duty-free access to the U.S. must be
regularly renewed. Businesses are reluctant to invest in flower farms
or garment factories unless they know that they will be able to
export to the U.S. for many years to come.)

Some Democrats point out that Colombia's government has been tied to
paramilitary units that kill union members. It was important for
Democrats to raise these concerns - forcing the Colombian government
to crack down on the paramilitaries.

But Colombia's progress has been immense. Assassinations of union
members, while still a problem, have fallen 80 percent since 2002.
Last year, the murder rate for union members was 4 per 100,000,
reaching levels far below the homicide rate for the general public.

I asked President Alvaro Uribe this week if there was concern among
Latin leaders that Democrats in Congress are tugging the U.S. away
from its historic commitment to free trade. He said bluntly: "I don't
want to imagine this scenario. It would be devastating for the good
relationship between the United States and our region."

To their credit, a large group of prominent Democrats from previous
administrations have strongly endorsed the trade accord. But the
presidential candidates aren't listening.

Democrats instinctively criticize Mr. Bush when he harms America's
standing in the world. That's easy. But a test of intellectual
honesty is your willingness to hold your own side to the same
standard and to point out pandering in those politicians you normally admire.