| Colombia Deserves a Vote!Trade Agreement Promises Delivered
The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement is a great deal for U.S. workers, farmers, and businesses. It's the latest in a series of trade agreements that are paying dividends for the American economy. Consider the success of the recent trade agreement with Chile, upon which the agreement with Colombia is modeled.
The U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement was implemented on January 1, 2004, and immediately began to pay dividends for American businesses and farmers. While the U.S. International Trade Commission had forecast total export growth of 18-52% over the first 12 years of the agreement's implementation, U.S. exports to Chile leapt by 33% in 2004, 43% in 2005, 31% in 2006, and an additional 17% in 2007. All told, U.S.-Chile trade has tripled in just four years!
The conclusion? Trade agreements work! Trade is a motor for economic growth, and it generates new economic opportunities throughout the United States.
Consider the remarkable results from trade with Chile:
- U.S. exports rose by $5.3 billion in four years, reaching nearly $8 billion in 2007.
- Individual companies can point to the same impressive gains. Caterpillar, for instance, has seen U.S. exports to Chile triple for some of its product lines.
- Helped by the boom in trade and the surge in the price of copper (Chile's leading export), Chile's per capita income doubled from 2003 to 2006, and unemployment fell from 8.1% in 2003 to 6% at the end of 2006.
Other recent trade agreements have borne similar fruits:
- Trade with Jordan has risen six-fold since the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement was signed in 2000, fostering the creation of tens of thousands of jobs in a country that is a close ally of the United States.
- The U.S. trade surplus with Singapore quintupled over the first four years of implementation of the U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (from 2003 to 2007), reaching $7.9 billion.
- Implemented in January 2005, the free trade agreement with Australia helped boost U.S. exports down under by 35% in just three years.
The U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement takes the same comprehensive, high-standard approach to trade as these earlier agreements. To build on the success of these earlier trade agreements, Congress should approve the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement swiftly!
Colombia Deserves a Vote!
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|  | |  | | Did you know?
| | | Twenty-three states exported more than $50 million in goods to Colombia in 2007. Fifteen of these states exported goods worth more than $100 million, and two states exported merchandise worth more than $2 billion.
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| | | | Overheard
| | | ''Doing business with Colombia is, in fact, one of the many ways we can strengthen our economy. Colombia's economy is booming, and the United States supplies 40 percent of its imports. Colombia purchased $6.7 billion in U.S. exports in 2006 alone. There are lots of other strong arguments to be made, but we suspect this has little to do with logic and everything to do with election-year politicking.''
- The Dallas Morning News, April 16, 2008
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