| Colombia Deserves a Vote!Why Support the Trade Promotion Agreement
with Colombia?
GROWTH: Capitalizing on an already robust partnership
- America's two-way trade with Colombia has nearly doubled over the past five years, approaching $18 billion in 2007.
- Colombia is the second most populous Spanish-speaking country in the world, our fourth-largest trading partner in Latin America, and our largest market for agricultural exports in South America. Its economic growth reached 7% last year, and poverty has been reduced by an impressive 15% since 2000.
- Already exporting to Colombia are nearly 8,000 U.S. companies, more than 80 percent of which are small and medium-sized firms that will benefit directly from the trade agreement.
HOPE: Supporting a friend and ally in a region at risk
- The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will help Colombian citizens strengthen the rule of law, internationally recognized workers' rights, and transparency in business and government.
- The agreement will provide local citizens with long-term alternatives to narcotics trafficking or emigration. It will also open services markets, safeguard investments, and secure the intellectual property of U.S. inventors, researchers, and creative artists.
- Last year, Colombia's House of Representatives voted 84-3 and its Senate voted 54-16 to include labor and environmental provisions reached in the May 10 bipartisan trade deal in the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement. Colombians are confident that stronger ties to the U.S. will enhance security, stability, and prosperity.
OPPORTUNITY: Leveling the playing field for U.S. workers and farmers
- More than 90% of all imports from Colombia already enter the U.S. marketplace duty-free under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), which was recently renewed by large bipartisan majorities in Congress.
- By contrast, U.S. exports to Colombia face average tariffs of 14% for manufactured goods and more than 50% for key agricultural exports such as corn and wheat. In other words, Colombians enjoy nearly free access to our marketplace while our access to theirs remains limited.
- The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement will remedy the unfairness of today's U.S.-Colombia trade relationship and transform it into a mutually beneficial partnership by eliminating most tariffs immediately upon entry-into-force.
Colombia Deserves a Vote!
|
|  | |  | | Did you know?
| | | ''...Concern about workers' plight should not lead Congressional Democrats to reject the trade agreement with Colombia. This deal would benefit the American economy and further the nation's broader interests in Latin America. It is time for Congress to ratify it.''
- Editorial, The New York Times, April 12, 2008
| |  | |  |
| | | | Overheard
| | | ''Support for Colombia and the trade agreement is smart foreign policy. Congress has a responsibility to act now.''
- General Barry McCaffrey
| | | | |
| |
