Columbia Free Trade Agreement

Floor Speech

COLOMBIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT -- (Senate - May 07, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I join my distinguished colleague from Missouri in talking about the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Last week marked the inauspicious benchmark for American companies that do business in Latin America, and there are a lot of them. Since the Colombian Free Trade Agreement was first signed in 2006--533 days ago--more than $1 billion in tariffs has been exacted against American companies that have sold their goods, their produce, to Colombia. Put another way, that is $1 billion in a missed opportunity.

The reason why that is a problem is because Columbia pays no tariffs or duty on their goods coming into the United States, of which my State is the single largest trading partner. They pay no tariffs or duty on their goods. So we have a decidedly unlevel playing field when it comes to goods and services that are exported from the United States to Colombia. It is something they are willing to level the playing field on if we will simply act, if the Speaker would call up the Colombia Free Trade Agreement for a vote in the United States House of Representatives.

I would think at a time when we are all concerned about the softening of the American economy and jobs here at home, we would want to create more jobs, producing goods for our farmers and greater markets for their produce in places such as Latin America. But instead, we find this has become more or less a chip in a high stakes poker game. It is totally inappropriate to the responsibility we ought to demonstrate with regard to one of our best allies in Latin America and America's national security and economic interests.

As I mentioned, last year Colombia bought about $2.3 billion in goods and services from the State of Texas. This has been good for our economy, good for job creation and, as I said, Colombia has been an important ally in fighting the narcoterrorists, the FARC in particular, who have had it their way unimpeded far too long in Latin America, and particularly in Colombia.

After more than a year of being stalled by Speaker Pelosi, the President was finally left with no option but to send this Free Trade Agreement for fast track approval. But rather than Congress doing its job--acting on this Free Trade Agreement on an expedited timetable--Speaker Pelosi went to the most extreme lengths to avoid a vote on this critical agreement. The Speaker of the House, instead of following the rules, decided to rewrite the rules to avoid the possibility of this coming up for a vote in the House of Representatives.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time politics has taken precedence over our national security and economic interests. I remind my colleagues we are still waiting for the House of Representatives' cooperation to finally enact essential reforms our intelligence community needs to timely receive accurate information through something known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I want to come back to that in a moment, but I think it is instructive to look at this chart to see exactly what I was referring to when it comes to the importance of this free trade agreement for the United States from an economic standpoint.

As I indicated, without the passage of this free trade agreement, American goods and services continue to bear a tariff as they are exported to Colombia and imported into Colombia. For automobiles, it is 35 percent; furniture, 20 percent; mineral fuels and coal, 5 to 15 percent; cotton, 10 percent; metal products, 5 to 15 percent; computer products, another 10 percent. If Speaker Pelosi would simply allow the Colombian Free Trade Agreement to be voted on in the House of Representatives, I am confident it would pass, and this 35-percent disadvantage for our domestic auto manufacturers, which are particularly suffering in these slower economic times, would go from a 35-percent tariff down to zero. Likewise for all of the other goods I mentioned a moment ago. This is most decidedly in America's best interests. This is most decidedly in the best interests of a strong economy. Also, as I said, it is in the best interests of our national security as well.

With the current state of the economy, we have passed one or perhaps now two stimulus packages with discussion of passing yet another. But I continue to believe the most effective way to jump-start our economy is to put more money into family budgets. One thing that is clear to me is that giving American businesses a fair path to compete in foreign markets will bring money back to the United States and back to the people, particularly small businesses and farmers who work so hard here in America to keep our country prosperous and provide for their families. Growing businesses mean growing wages, growing jobs, and a growing economy. There is no better way in these uncertain economic times to help our economy grow than to create new markets in places such as Latin America, and particularly with one of our greatest allies in Latin America, the nation of Colombia.

But in addition to helping our own businesses in America, we need to consider the additional benefits of granting a meaningful agreement to our strongest Latin American ally. This agreement would be a strong showing of our support for the reforms that are continuing in Colombia and the leadership, at great risk to President Uribe in particular, when it comes to improving its democracy, respecting the rights of all of its citizens, and fighting against the drug cartels and terrorist organizations and the like.

Unfortunately, I think we too often neglect our Latin American neighbors, both when looking for partnerships and when identifying threats. We are well familiar with the rhetoric of President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and, frankly, I think there is nothing that Hugo Chavez would like better than for Speaker Pelosi to prevail in her attempt to block a vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. After all, Venezuela is a next-door neighbor, and President Chavez, who has been host to President Ahmadinejad of Iran and who has made himself an enemy of the United States, has to be enjoying the blocking of this free trade agreement, because he can say to President Uribe and like-minded democracies in Latin America: This is what you get when you cooperate with the United States.

That is exactly the opposite message we need. We need a message which portrays that when you cooperate with the United States in terms of developing your democracy, opening your markets to our goods and produce and services, when you cooperate with the United States to fight narcotraffickers and to bring peace and stability to your country, we will be your strongest ally and we will be your best friend. Unfortunately, the message we see being sent by Speaker Pelosi is that rather than treating the nation of Colombia as one of our best friends in Latin America, they are being demeaned into being treated as nothing but a poker chip in a high stakes game of cards. It is not right.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I thank my distinguished colleague from Florida for his leadership on this issue. This is not one of those issues that grabs a headline, but it is certainly one that is very important to the economy of the United States, and it is important to our national security.

There is one other point I wish to make in that regard. For those concerned about the exodus of individuals from Latin America and other parts of the world who are looking for jobs and opportunities because they have none at home, this is an important part of our overall strategy to try to see that people have jobs and they have hope where they live, so they don't feel compelled to have to come to the United States in order to get a job and provide for their family. This is an important part of our strategy across Latin America.

There is another initiative that I think we will be hearing more about soon, called the Meridia Initiative, to help our ally in Mexico, President Calderon, as he fights the drug cartels down there, for the future of that country, which of course is on our southern border, 1,600 miles of which is common border with my State of Texas.

Whether we like it or not--and I know some people don't--our fate, in many ways, and our economy and our security are inextricably tied to countries in Latin America, in the Western Hemisphere. It is not smart--it is perhaps even naive--to think we can ignore what is happening in Colombia, in Mexico, and we can fail to come to the aid of our allies and people who are like-minded in wanting to establish democracy, security, and prosperity in those countries. It is naive to think we can simply turn a blind eye to things such as the Columbia Free Trade Agreement and the Meridia Initiative to help President Calderon in Mexico fight the drug cartels, in what is a fight for the future of that great country on our southern border.

I yield the floor and yield back the rest of our time. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Source