The U.S.-Colombia Trade Agreement

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I stand to once again raise my concern and, frankly, disappointment by the decision of the majority party in this House to turn its back on America's best friend in Latin America. Ladies and gentlemen, the oldest democracy in South America is the Republic of Colombia. Colombia is a thriving democracy, a nation of 42 million citizens, the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world. And in Latin America, everyone recognizes the Uribe Government, the democratically elected Government of Colombia, as America's most reliable partner and America's best friend. And this House, with the Democratic majority voting almost unanimously, voted to turn its back on Colombia, America's best friend.

It is kind of interesting. Look at the progress that has been made in Colombia. President Uribe was elected by the people of Colombia to put an end to a longstanding civil war where narco-trafficking, leftist guerrillas, known as the FARC, ELN and right-wing narco-trafficking paramilitaries known as the Paras, all three of those terrorist groups have attacked the democratically elected government and destabilized the democratically elected government. And President Uribe was elected to put an end to that conflict. And he has made tremendous progress.

In fact, thousands upon thousands of paramilitaries have laid down their arms and agreed to honor the peace process and integrate back into society. Unfortunately, the FARC, which has ties to the government of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, continues to fight. But the government of President Uribe has made tremendous progress pushing the FARC into the far reaches of the country. And today, villages that have never seen the presence of a national government, certainly not in decades, today enjoy the security provided by the government of President Uribe, tremendous progress.

In fact, violence has dropped so much, cities such as Medellin, which was once known as one of the most dangerous places on the planet, today is safer than the city of Baltimore. In fact, the murder rate of Baltimore is higher than Medellin, Colombia. So it is safer to walk the streets of Medellin than it is to walk the streets of Baltimore. And we want to commend the Uribe Government, the democratically elected Government of Colombia for the progress they have made.

We have an opportunity with the trade promotion agreement to further cement our ties with our best friend, an agreement that is good for American workers. It is good for American manufacturers. It is good for American farmers. Right now Colombian products enter the United States essentially duty-free. Their agricultural products and their manufactured goods come in without any tariffs. But U.S.-made products such as bulldozers that are made in the district I represent, if they are exported to Colombia, they face tariffs of 10 to 12 percent. Some of our agricultural commodities such as corn face tariffs of 45 percent.

Clearly, those tariff barriers, those taxes, make U.S. products less competitive with Argentine corn or Asian competition for construction equipment. And I would note since this trade promotion agreement was signed between the United States and Colombia, over $1 billion U.S. in tariffs have been imposed upon American goods, manufactured goods and agricultural products that have been exported to Colombia. And we are waiting to ratify this agreement which would eliminate those tariffs and make U.S. products more competitive.

The bottom line is the trade promotion agreement is good for American workers. It is good for American farmers. It is good for American manufacturers. In fact, the agricultural community will tell you that the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement is the best agreement in our Nation's history with any other nation when it comes to access to products grown in the United States and exported to Colombia. The bottom line is it is a good agreement.

Now my friends on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, say, well, Colombia hasn't done enough. We need to make them do more. There is still some violence there. And until they eliminated it all, well, gee. Well, the bottom line is that Medellin, which was once the murder capital of the world, is now safer than the city of Baltimore. And some people who oppose this agreement say, well, there has been some labor leaders who have experienced violence. But look at the history they have. But as the Washington Post just pointed out, it is safer to be a labor leader in Colombia than it is to be a regular citizen. In fact, the murder rate of labor leaders is lower than the average murder rate of any other citizen in Colombia. Again, President Uribe has made progress.

Let's honor our Nation's best friend in Latin America. Let's honor our most reliable partner. Let's bring to this floor the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. Let's bring it up for a vote, because we know it will pass. Let's get it ratified and move forward so we can grow our economy.

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