United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Colombia trade bill.

Trade agreements must be balanced, facilitating reciprocal two-way trade between nations. It's absolutely necessary that we also take into consideration small, family-owned, domestic industries that are sensitive to cheap foreign imports. Unfortunately, the Colombia trade bill falls flat in accomplishing these goals.

For more than 20 years, Colombia has benefited from the duty-free access to the U.S. market under the Andean Trade Preference Act. At the same time, some Colombian industries have received big government subsidies from the Colombian Government, and oftentimes our own U.S. foreign aid dollars benefit them. These policies have slowly eroded one of California's most unique and innovative industries.

California is home to the vast majority of domestic cut-flower growers in the United States of America. They account for more than 10,000 jobs across our State and represent hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity every year. Because of these failed trade policies, Colombia now has a stranglehold on 75 percent of the U.S. cut-flower market, creating a marketplace dominated by cheap foreign flowers, produced with cheap, unregulated labor. This puts our small family-owned businesses at an extreme disadvantage.

You can't tell me that it's cheaper to import flowers from Colombia than it is to grow them in our own backyard. I drive through northern California on a very regular basis and see collapsed, dilapidated, and unused greenhouses littering the small towns and rural communities of California. It's clear this industry has taken a major hit over the last few decades due to this flawed trade policy.

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Mr. THOMPSON of California. As we see more and more flower farms and greenhouses closing all over California, this reminds us of the last time we did business with Colombia. This agreement is anti-family business and it's anti-American jobs. I urge a ``no'' vote on the Colombia trade bill.

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