COLOMBIA SEES GAINS IN JOBS, DRUG WAR FROM U.S. PACT

WASHINGTON - A U.S.-Colombia free trade pact that faces a battle in
Congress next year could help both nations fight drug trafficking and
boost employment in the Andean country, a Colombian trade official
said on Thursday.

"A sound and formal economy will be the most powerful incentive to
keep our people from being involved in undesirable activities," said
Hernando Jose Gomez, Colombia's chief negotiator in the bilateral talks.

The United States has poured more than $3 billion in mainly military
aid since 2000 into Colombia, which produces most of the world's cocaine.

Colombia expects the agreement to increase its legal exports to the
United States by more than $1 billion over the first three years of
the pact, with $826 million of that coming from the industrial and
mining sector and $191 million from agriculture, Gomez said at a U.S.
International Trade Commission hearing on the economic impact of the accord.

U.S. exports to Colombia should increase even more, by $1.63 billion
over the first three years, with almost a third of that coming from
the U.S. farm sector, he said.

Despite opening its door to more imports, Colombia expects the
agreement to boost job opportunities.

The country's unemployment rate, currently at 10.4 percent, could
decline 2 percentage points over the next five years as a result of
the pact, Gomez said.

U.S. labor groups are expected to mount a major battle to stop the
agreement because Colombia has a long history of violence against
trade union members.

Gomez said anti-union violence has fallen dramatically in recent
years as the result of the $25 million the Colombian government
spends annually to protect union members.

Union leaders are safer in Colombia than they would be in some U.S.
cities, based on a comparison of murder rates, but the government is
open to suggestions about how it could improve the situation, Gomez said.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers
Council strongly endorsed the agreement, but the R-CALF beef trade
group told the ITC panel it was concerned Colombia could flood the
U.S. market with beef if current animal disease restrictions are lifted.

Gomez told reporters Colombia hoped to formally sign the agreement
with United States late next month.

Since Congress is not expected to vote on the pact until 2007,
Colombia needs a temporary extension of long-time U.S. trade benefits
that expire at the end of this year, he said.