MIAMI (AFP) — US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez on Thursday urged Congress to ratify a free trade agreement with Colombia, saying that not doing so would be a major foreign policy mistake.
Speaking at a forum in Miami, Gutierrez said failure to ratify the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) "would confuse our friends and make our enemies very happy."
"It would probably be one of the biggest foreign policy mistakes we could make in Latin America in our time," the official said at the Miami Herald's annual Americas Conference.
Washington and Bogota signed the agreement in December, but it has yet to be ratified by Congress, where Democrats have expressed concerns over claims that officials close to President Alvaro Uribe had links to a right-wing paramilitary group that figures on a US list of terrorist organizations.
But the White House is keen to see Congress ratify the agreement with Colombia, a leading US ally in Latin America.
"This isn't a time to punish an ally," said Gutierrez.
The US Congress is also due to consider similar agreements with Peru, Panama and South Korea.
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