About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

238 IRET Congressional Advisory 1 (2008)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/iretcgadv0235 and id is 1 raw text is: INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON THE ECONOMICS OF TAXATION IRET is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) economic policy research and educational organization devoted to informing the public about policies that will promote growth and efficient operation of the market economy. April 11, 2008 Advisory No. 238 COLOMBIA TRADE PACT President Bush has sent the Colombia Trade Promotion agreement to Congress for approval. The pact is an excellent deal for American workers, farmers, manufacturers, and consumers. Unfortunately, it has been caught up in election year rhetoric, and it will take some statesmanlike behavior in the Congress to see the matter through to a successful conclusion. Under the President's trade promotion authority, the Congress would normally have voted on the pact within 90 days from the date of submission. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an opponent of the pact, obtained a House resolution to waive that requirement on April 10, allowing her to postpone action, by a vote of 224-195. The worst case outcome of this amendment would be for the agreement to be postponed indefinitely, and ultimately die. The best case is that the vote will be delayed, possibly until after the election, when political factors may be less dominant, and the merits of the pact may be given more weight. Last fall, Congress did two good things on trade. It ratified the Peru Trade Promotion Agreement, and it extended Andean Trade preferences through the end of 2008. All the good reasons for those steps, and more, apply to the Colombia agreement. The Andean preferences program allows duty- free entry of goods from Andean nations in exchange for difficult and expensive efforts by participating nations to suppress narcotics trafficking. The program is renewed periodically by Congress, although, in 2002, the program lapsed for more than six months, creating havoc for Andean exporters to the United States. For most of the last 17 years, then, the Andean preferences program has allowed duty-free entry of most Colombian goods into the United States. As a result, 93 percent of Colombian exports to the United States are now duty free. However, U.S. goods continue to face steep tariffs when they enter Colombia. The uncertainty relating to the temporary lapse of the Andean preferences prompted the Colombians to approach us with a proposal that we exchange their one-way, time-limited, duty-free market access for a reciprocal and permanent agreement, which would give U.S. exporters duty-free access to Colombian markets. Negotiations started in 2004, and an agreement was signed in November 2006. It would be most beneficial to have the agreement approved and implemented before the Andean preference extension runs out at the end of this year. The one-way Andean trade preferences were extended by unanimous consent in the Senate and by voice vote in the House. The AFL/CIO supported that extension. The unions and its members should readily understand that it would be even better to level the playing field for American exporters by approving two-way free trade. Yet the AFL/CIO now inconsistently opposes the Colombia agreement. The United States would gain immediate duty- free access to Colombia for over 80 percent of our consumer and industrial products. U.S. trade union members would benefit: 8,000 U.S. firms now export to Colombia, which has one of the largest Latin a~om k3. S I gg~ 8 ~II

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most