Uribe invites US Speaker Pelosi to Colombia over trade row

[Judi Lynn]

Source: AFP

Uribe invites US Speaker Pelosi to Colombia over trade row
9 hours ago

BOGOTA (AFP) — Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Thursday invited US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit his country in a bid to convince the US Congress to approve a controversial bilateral free trade deal.

Uribe's invitation came after the Democratic-led House of Representatives delayed a vote on the free trade agreement, resisting pressure from US President George W. Bush to get the pact approved this year.

"We want Ms. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States, to visit Colombia," Uribe said during an event in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena.

US unions have strongly opposed the trade pact over concerns about violence against union activists in Colombia.

The proposed trade deal has also made headlines in the US presidential election with Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton voicing opposition to the pact.


Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5grpQ4gK7Gt5zhLGQ5JGhwv56Reog

[ingac70]

1. So he can kill her? n/t

[arcos]

2. That was my first thought too... nt

[acmavm]

3. No silly. She can be bought.

[Peace Patriot]

5. LOL! nt

[Texano78704]

4. Why not?

Bill Clinton went to Colombia. Why not Nancy Pelosi? Maybe Uribe can soften her up by taking her on a Chiva ride.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Pelosi Did Not Promise Trade Vote This Year, Colombians Say

April 18, 2008 – 2:00 p.m.
Pelosi Did Not Promise Trade Vote This Year, Colombians Say

Colombia’s top officials have received no assurances that the pending free-trade agreement will come up for a vote this year following last week’s House vote to suspend action on the pact’s implementing legislation, the country’s vice president said Friday.

Vice President Francisco Santos Calderón, who is in Washington to meet with business groups to garner support for the trade deal, said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., has not made any promises to Colombia that Congress will vote on the trade pact this year.

“She’s said in private what she has said publicly,” Santos said in an interview.
(snip)

Unlike administration officials, who say the Colombia agreement is dead unless Pelosi schedules an up-or-down vote, Santos said the pact is very much alive.

He said the state of play now “will require the administration and the U.S. Congress to find a negotiated solution to this.”

http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=cqmidday-000002707273