Bishops urge U.S., Colombia to protect farmers in trade agreement

Published: 2006-02-07

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- Colombia's bishops have urged President Alvaro Uribe and his administration to protect the interests of farmers and the poor as the government seeks a free trade agreement with the United States. "We insist, more than anything, that they be very careful with how (an agreement) could affect the poorest people, with how it could affect the countryside," Archbishop Luis Castro Quiroga of Tunja, president of the Colombian bishops' conference, told reporters at the bishops' general meeting in Bogota. A free trade agreement, "as well as ensuring ... adequate agrarian policies, fair labor standards, effective environmental regulations (and) fair intellectual property, should also promote the welfare of everyone, especially the poor and excluded," Archbishop Castro said in a Feb. 6 statement to open the general meeting. The archbishop stressed the importance of guaranteeing affordable medicine for the poor and cautioned against an "eventual invasion" of genetically modified crops to avoid "unnecessary and dangerous risks."

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