On 21 November 2008, in Lima, during the APEC leaders' meetings, Stockwell Day, Canada's Minister of International Trade, and Luis Guillermo Plata, Colombia's Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, signed the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Colombia. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Alvaro Uribe were witnesses, not signatories. It is not the Canada–Peru agreement of May 2008. The text has 23 chapters. It is done in duplicate, in the English, Spanish and French languages, each version being equally authentic.

Article 101 establishes a free-trade area, consistent with Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of GATS. Article 102 affirms existing rights and obligations under the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO; in the event of inconsistency, this Agreement shall prevail to the extent of the inconsistency, except as otherwise provided. Article 104: each Party is fully responsible for observance of the Agreement, including, for Canada, reasonable measures as to provincial, territorial and local governments. Article 2303: this Agreement shall not be subject to unilateral reservations.

Chapter 2 covers national treatment and market access for goods. Chapter 8 on investment allows, in Articles 819 to 822, claims to arbitration by an investor on its own behalf or on behalf of an enterprise, after consultations and a six-month notice of intent, under the ICSID Convention, the ICSID Additional Facility Rules or the UNCITRAL Rules. Chapter 21 governs disputes between the Parties, except for matters arising under Chapters 16 (Labour) and 17 (Environment). Article 2001 establishes a Joint Commission of cabinet-level representatives, which supervises implementation and may adopt interpretive decisions binding on panels and on investment tribunals.

Chapter 16 affirms the Parties' obligations as ILO members and sets the detailed mutual obligations in the Labour Cooperation Agreement, a separate instrument. Chapter 17 does the same for the environment. At the same ceremony the Labour Cooperation Agreement, the Agreement on the Environment and a Double Taxation Convention were also signed; they are not the text of this free-trade agreement.

Article 2304: each Party shall notify the other in writing of the completion of its domestic procedures; this Agreement shall enter into force 60 days from the date of the second of these notifications. The recorded date of entry into force is 15 August 2011. Article 2305: it shall remain in force unless terminated by either Party on six months' written notice. Article 2306 allows accession by any country or group of countries on agreed terms. There is no third-party depositary: the notifications run between the Parties.

It is not the Canada–Peru agreement of 2008, not the Labour Cooperation Agreement and not the Double Taxation Convention signed the same day.

Image: Government Palace, Lima, city of the signing during APEC; Diego Delso, 28 July 2015; CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. Treaty text: Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the Republic of Colombia, Lima, 21 November 2008.