The Cost of Holding up the Columbia Trade Promotion Act
By Michael Petricone
As a reader of this blog, you know that the U.S. technology industry is driven by exports. And you also probably know that Congress is inexplicably holding up the U.S. – Colombia Trade Promotion Act which would remove tariffs on American goods going to Colombia (Colombian goods currently enter the U.S. duty-free).
But how much money is Congress’ intransigence really costing American firms and workers? Now we know, thanks to the Department of Commerce’s “Colombia Tariff Ticker”. The news is sobering – nearly a billion dollars in needless tariffs have already been imposed on U.S. goods since the agreement was signed. And, in a softening economy, Congressional dithering on this agreement is penalizing American workers an astonishing $1.9 million dollars EVERY DAY.
We hope that Congress looks beyond politics and approves this agreement – we literally can’t afford to wait any longer.
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