[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12536-12537]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, while the President chose yesterday to 
engage in a strident, harsh, vitriolic attack on us, I'm going to 
respond by complimenting him.
  At the G20 meeting I was very gratified to see that the President 
came forward and said that we could create good private sector jobs 
right here in the United States of America if we were to proceed with 
ratification of the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement. It will, in 
fact, Mr. Speaker, be the largest trade agreement in the history of the 
world.
  Now, some critics would say that calling for its renegotiation or 
delaying a vote until a lame duck session would be the wrong thing to 
do. But I will say that I believe anything that we can do to move in 
that direction is a positive.
  One cautionary note: There are two pending trade agreements with both 
Panama and Colombia that were negotiated before the U.S.-South Korea 
Free Trade Agreement was completed. Millions and millions of consumers 
who would like to have the opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to purchase U.S. 
goods and services right here in our hemisphere are denied that 
opportunity.

[[Page 12537]]

  If we proceed with the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement as the 
President has called for us to do, we must also proceed immediately 
with the Panama and Colombia free trade agreements as well.

                          ____________________