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As their candidate prepares to travel to Columbia and Mexico, John McCain's campaign has released a new web video – "Columbia Free Trade" – that stresses his support for the proposed free trade agreement with Columbia, which rival Barack Obama opposes because he says it lacks necessary labor and environmental standards.

The video's opening seems designed to appeal both to Latino voters and to those who are concerned about immigration from Mexico.

"To fuel our economy, we must create more jobs for Americans and for our neighbors to the south," McCain says, as Spanish subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen. "With better jobs, more of them will be able to stay in their country."

"We can't go back on our word on free trade promises with Mexico, Canada, Central America or anyone else," he continues. "We must encourage more trade agreements to create more jobs on both sides of the border; that's why I'm behind the Colombian Free Trade Agreement."

Watch:



The AFL-CIO, meanwhile, has released a statement on McCain's trip.

"Working people have seen bad trade deals send their jobs overseas and decimate their communities, yet McCain enthusiastically supports the proposed U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement and celebrates the effects of NAFTA," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in the statement.

"McCain has said he would negotiate a 'free trade' agreement with 'almost any country willing to negotiate fairly with us' – without any consideration of the negative job impact on American workers or the egregious abuse of workers’ rights abroad," he added.

As the Wall Street Journal detailed this morning, Mark Penn, the chief strategist to the Hillary Clinton campaign, "met with Colombia's ambassador to the U.S. on Monday to discuss a bilateral free-trade agreement, a pact the presidential candidate opposes."

Penn didn't attend the meeting in his capacity as a Clinton advisor but as executive of communications and lobbying firm Burson-Marsteller Worldwide. The Journal notes that the firm "has a contract with the South American nation to promote congressional approval of the trade deal, among other things."

In a statement, Penn apologized for attending the meeting.

"The meeting was an error in judgment that will not be repeated and I am sorry for it," Penn said. "The senator's well known opposition to this trade deal is clear and was not discussed."