[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 5372]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              COLOMBIA FTA

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the President will meet today with 
Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos. We understand they will announce 
agreement on a long overdue free-trade agreement with this important 
trading partner and our best ally in South America. Republicans have 
been urging the President to act on this and on other critical trade 
deals for over 2 years.
  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that trade deals with 
Colombia, Panama, and South Korea can provide up to 380,000 U.S. jobs. 
We know this deal alone would create tens of thousands of new jobs here 
in this country. At a time when millions of Americans are out of work 
and businesses are looking for opportunities to hire, there was no 
excuse to slow walk these deals.
  We hope today's meeting marks a real step forward in concluding this 
trade agreement with Colombia. We expect this announcement means the 
President will be submitting all three trade agreements--Korea, 
Colombia, and Panama--in the very near future. We look forward to 
working with him to clear them through the Congress.
  I yield the floor.

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