The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JULY-AUGUST 2014 35 Among other things, we reported on the billion-dollar market share U.S. agriculture was losing to countries that had free trade agreements in place with Colombia. We monitored trade negotia- tions between Colombia and major competitors including South Korea, the European Union and China. We also documented trade agreements as they entered into force. And we painted a picture of Bogota’s aggressive trade agenda and the economic losses to U.S. exporters if the trade agreement was not ratified. Similar reports went in from South Korea and Panama, but each of the three amigos had its own peculiarities. For Colombia, the special twist was labor and the labor action plan, and what a twist it was! We had some superb labor officers—that rare breed that pingpongs between political and economic sections, depending on the roundness of the ball and the size of the racket that hits it. Their impartial reporting was critical to the cause, covering reactions from the labor sector and events leading to the labor action plan. Once the plan was in place, they reported on progress toward meeting the plan’s targets and continued to report on labor sector positions. These virtuosos had to convey accurate information to change the old preconceptions about the labor sector in Colombia and present an updated reality of the country to justify ratification of the trade agreement. There are far more details and stories about the three amigos, and perhaps one day they will be written down. If you ever find yourself, as a reporting officer, wondering whether the cable you just drafted and put through the transformation of the clearance process would affect policy, just remember the three amigos: the South Korea, Colombia and Panama trade agreements. Political and economic reporting does make a difference. Ivan Rios is an economic and commercial affairs officer now serving in Windhoek. He joined the Foreign Service in 2005 and has served in Mexico City, Recife and Bogota. Prior to that, he held two limited non- career appointments, in Mexico City and São Paulo. Political Reporting: Then and Now— and Looking Ahead By Kathryn Hoffman and Samuel C. Downing Consulate General São Paulo The world has changed in the three decades since Mongolian Airlines stewardesses in black fishnet stockings crossed my desk in Washington via a cable from the field. That cable described a bipolar world, stark and clear, where the gulf between what “we” Embassy Bogota Deputy Chief of Mission Perry Holloway, center, during a ceremony celebrating the arrival of the first U.S. motorcycle, a Harley Davidson, imported into Colombia under the Free Trade Agreement signed in 2012. Courtesy Embassy Bogota