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Omnibus Trade Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 15, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Trade

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Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with renewed hope that our Nation's trade agenda may soon move forward. This legislation includes an extension of trade preference programs, which is important, but is no substitute for passing our pending market-opening agreements with Colombia, Panama, and Korea. Mr. Speaker, if we hope to remain the key player in the global marketplace, we must do all we can to strengthen our ties to important democratic allies. Passage of these agreements will boost economic growth and create U.S. jobs by tearing down trade barriers and significantly increasing our exports into these markets, while at the same time enhancing our national security by bringing greater stability to Asia and South America.

Take the U.S.-Colombia agreement, for example. Colombia is the largest market for U.S. agricultural exports in South America, which makes it an important market for my agriculturally rich northern California district. Yet, we have seen our agriculture exports to Colombia decline by 65 percent over the last 2 years because our products still face tariffs and other barriers, while agriculture products from Argentina and Brazil, two major competitors for America's farmers and ranchers, received duty-free access to the Colombian market. The reason for the disparity is simple: Argentina and Brazil have implemented a trade agreement with Colombia, while our Nation has not. This trend, of U.S. producers losing out to foreign competitors, will only get worse as the European Union and Canada are moving towards implementing their own agreements with Colombia.

Mr. Speaker, it is time for Congress to recognize that continued inaction is suppressing job creation for Americans out of work and denying our producers new opportunities to export. Congress should pass our pending trade agreements without further delays.

I urge the Congress and my colleagues to support this legislation.

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