Ratification should go beyond meeting these conditions. Less people are joining trade unions than they were before Uribe’s administration, fewer trade unions are being allowed to form, legislation has changed labor laws and conditions, and informal work has increased. These are symptomatic of a prevalent anti-unionist climate. The impact the FTA would have in trade unionism should not be exclusively measured by violence against trade unionists but should take into account the impact of said violence, namely the dangers in defending workers rights and the erosion of the right of freedom of association. 

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Later, the crew visited Ali Lakiss, CEO of Saf-Cacao, Ivory Coast’s largest domestically owned cocoa exporter. It was bitterly ironic to see how Mr. Lakiss so confidently claimed of there being no slavery or trafficking in the Ivory Coast’s cocoa plantations as undercover footage was shown of a group of young boys cutting down cocoa pods with machetes in a nearby plantation. Like many children forced into labor, these kids did not attend school, could not speak the local language and admitted to being beaten by the plantation owners if not working hard enough. Even more disturbing was how such children are seen as profitable purchases; where for a mere 230 pounds, plantation owners could cover the cost for transport of a child and inherit an indefinite time of labor.