By Michael Petricone

On April 7th, President Bush announced that he would be transmitting the U.S. – Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement to Congress for a vote. Many Democratic leaders reacted angrily, accusing him of violating protocol by releasing the agreement without the explicit approval by congressional leadership. Subsequently, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to change the House rules to remove the requirement for a vote on the agreement.

On the merits, this deal is a slam-dunk. Today most Colombian goods already enter the U.S. duty-free , while, Colombia imposes significant tariffs on U.S. products. This agreement would eliminate Colombia’s tariffs, leveling the playing field and opening a new market for American firms.

Nobody can make an economic case against this. On his show last week, even Lou Dobbs was hard pressed to come up with a criticism of the agreement (watch him here).

And union opposition seems driven by a desire to maintain the foolish ideological consistency of opposing ANY trade agreement, no matter what.

If there were ever a trade agreement that unequivocally benefits America, this is it. We urge both parties to work through their issues and arrive at a bi-partisan solution. Do the right thing, approve the agreement, and put it in America’s “win’ column.�

Popularity: 71% [?]

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 7:00 am and is filed under Free Trade. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.