[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12810]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   THE U.S.-COLOMBIA TRADE AGREEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I stand to once again raise my 
concern and, frankly, disappointment by the decision of the majority 
party in this House to turn its back on America's best friend in Latin 
America. Ladies and gentlemen, the oldest democracy in South America is 
the Republic of Colombia. Colombia is a thriving democracy, a nation of 
42 million citizens, the second largest Spanish-speaking nation in the 
world. And in Latin America, everyone recognizes the Uribe Government, 
the democratically elected Government of Colombia, as America's most 
reliable partner and America's best friend. And this House, with the 
Democratic majority voting almost unanimously, voted to turn its back 
on Colombia, America's best friend.
  It is kind of interesting. Look at the progress that has been made in 
Colombia. President Uribe was elected by the people of Colombia to put 
an end to a longstanding civil war where narco-trafficking, leftist 
guerrillas, known as the FARC, ELN and right-wing narco-trafficking 
paramilitaries known as the Paras, all three of those terrorist groups 
have attacked the democratically elected government and destabilized 
the democratically elected government. And President Uribe was elected 
to put an end to that conflict. And he has made tremendous progress.
  In fact, thousands upon thousands of paramilitaries have laid down 
their arms and agreed to honor the peace process and integrate back 
into society. Unfortunately, the FARC, which has ties to the government 
of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, continues to fight. But the government of 
President Uribe has made tremendous progress pushing the FARC into the 
far reaches of the country. And today, villages that have never seen 
the presence of a national government, certainly not in decades, today 
enjoy the security provided by the government of President Uribe, 
tremendous progress.
  In fact, violence has dropped so much, cities such as Medellin, which 
was once known as one of the most dangerous places on the planet, today 
is safer than the city of Baltimore. In fact, the murder rate of 
Baltimore is higher than Medellin, Colombia. So it is safer to walk the 
streets of Medellin than it is to walk the streets of Baltimore. And we 
want to commend the Uribe Government, the democratically elected 
Government of Colombia for the progress they have made.
  We have an opportunity with the trade promotion agreement to further 
cement our ties with our best friend, an agreement that is good for 
American workers. It is good for American manufacturers. It is good for 
American farmers. Right now Colombian products enter the United States 
essentially duty-free. Their agricultural products and their 
manufactured goods come in without any tariffs. But U.S.-made products 
such as bulldozers that are made in the district I represent, if they 
are exported to Colombia, they face tariffs of 10 to 12 percent. Some 
of our agricultural commodities such as corn face tariffs of 45 
percent.
  Clearly, those tariff barriers, those taxes, make U.S. products less 
competitive with Argentine corn or Asian competition for construction 
equipment. And I would note since this trade promotion agreement was 
signed between the United States and Colombia, over $1 billion U.S. in 
tariffs have been imposed upon American goods, manufactured goods and 
agricultural products that have been exported to Colombia. And we are 
waiting to ratify this agreement which would eliminate those tariffs 
and make U.S. products more competitive.
  The bottom line is the trade promotion agreement is good for American 
workers. It is good for American farmers. It is good for American 
manufacturers. In fact, the agricultural community will tell you that 
the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement is the best agreement in 
our Nation's history with any other nation when it comes to access to 
products grown in the United States and exported to Colombia. The 
bottom line is it is a good agreement.
  Now my friends on the other side of the aisle, the Democrats, say, 
well, Colombia hasn't done enough. We need to make them do more. There 
is still some violence there. And until they eliminated it all, well, 
gee. Well, the bottom line is that Medellin, which was once the murder 
capital of the world, is now safer than the city of Baltimore. And some 
people who oppose this agreement say, well, there has been some labor 
leaders who have experienced violence. But look at the history they 
have. But as the Washington Post just pointed out, it is safer to be a 
labor leader in Colombia than it is to be a regular citizen. In fact, 
the murder rate of labor leaders is lower than the average murder rate 
of any other citizen in Colombia. Again, President Uribe has made 
progress.
  Let's honor our Nation's best friend in Latin America. Let's honor 
our most reliable partner. Let's bring to this floor the U.S.-Colombia 
Trade Promotion Agreement. Let's bring it up for a vote, because we 
know it will pass. Let's get it ratified and move forward so we can 
grow our economy.

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