A top Senate Democrat is using his President’s Day recess to travel to Colombia and Brazil to promote free trade, according to reports.

Sen. Max Baucus, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, the panel that deals with trade issues, will spend the week discussing a pending trade pact with Colombian officials. He will also travel to Brazil to discuss ways to increase trade between the U.S. and Brazil.

The Colombia trade pact has been stalled since 2006, with Congressional Democrats vowing to derail its passage. With Baucus, a top Democrat, behind the measure, however, it may signal a transformation among members of the caucus.

“We have delayed action on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement for too long,” Baucus said in a statement.

“Finalizing our free trade agreement with Colombia and working with Brazil to expand trade and investment will level the playing field for American exporters and create significant opportunities for U.S. agriculture, manufacturing and services.”

Democrats in Congress have raised concerns about labor rights abuses in Columbia. The Columbia deal is opposed by much of the Democratic caucus because of alleged violence taking place in the South American nation against trade unionists. According to reports, 470 Columbian unionists have allegedly been assassinated since 2002.

The president has resisted moving forward on the trade pact, but recent statements by U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk suggests that the administration may be softening its stance. That would free many wavering Democrats to join with Republicans and vote for the measure.

Using past trade agreements as a model, the Economic Policy Institute projects that trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia would be very costly to the American economy. According to the study, the nation would lose 214,000 jobs by 2015, mostly well-paying manufacturing jobs. The trade deficit would rise by $16.8 billion, the study projects.

Increased trade with Brazil could also be a bad thing for American workers, especially those in the agricultural sector. Brazil is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It is currently the eighth largest.

Baucus, however, who hails from Montana, a state where agriculture is vital to the economy, says that the trade pact will actually help create American jobs.

“The delay in ratifying our Colombia trade agreement has cost our ranchers, farmers and small businesses enough already,” Baucus said. “We are losing business to competitors from countries like Argentina that have negotiated their own trade agreements with the fast-growing Colombian market, and the impending Canadian trade agreement threatens to cut Montana wheat producers entirely out of the market.”

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