    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2008, Book I)]
    [April 19, 2008]
    [Pages 532-533]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    April 19, 2008

        Good morning. Next week, I will be hosting the North American
    Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. This event will give me an opportunity
    to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon to discuss some of the most
    significant issues facing our hemisphere and the world.
        One of the issues I will be discussing with these leaders
    is the importance of expanding trade in our hemisphere. Recently, I sent
    Congress an agreement that would expand America's access to markets in
    Colombia. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House has chosen to block the Colombia free trade agreement
    instead of giving it an up-or-down vote that Congress committed to. Her
    action is unprecedented and extremely unfortunate. I hope that the
    Speaker will change her mind. If she does not, the agreement will be
    dead. And this will be bad for American workers and bad for America's
    national security.
        And here is why. Today, almost all of Colombia's exports to the
    United States enter duty free. But the 9,000 American businesses that
    export to Colombia, including nearly 8,000 small and midsized firms,
    face significant tariffs on their products. The situation is completely
    one sided. Our markets are open to Colombian products, but barriers that
    make it harder to sell American goods in Colombia remain. If the free
    trade agreement were implemented, however, most of Colombia's tariffs on
    American goods would be eliminated immediately.
        There's also a strategic imperative to approve the agreement. By
    obstructing this agreement, Congress is signaling to a watching
    hemisphere that America cannot be trusted to support its friends. Over
    the past 6 years, Colombia's President Uribe has been a steadfast ally of the United States. He's
    transformed his country from a near-failed state to a stable democracy
    with a growing economy. He has partnered with America in the fight
    against drugs and terror. And he has addressed virtually every one of
    Congress's concerns, including revising the free trade agreement to
    include some of the most rigorous labor and environmental protections in
    history.
        He has done all this while his
    country is under violent assault from a terrorist organization and
    facing constant intimidation from anti-American regimes in the region.
    As Canada's Prime Minister Harper has said,
    ``If the U.S. turns its back on its friends in Colombia, this will set
    back our cause far more than any Latin American dictator could hope to
    achieve.''
        Leaders in Congress have made a serious error, but it is not too
    late to get it right. This week, a long list of senior officials from
    Democratic administrations and Democrats from previous Congresses signed
    a letter urging Congress to approve the agreement this year. They wrote,
    quote, ``We feel that the treaty should be considered as soon as
    possible and that any obstacles should be quickly and amicably
    resolved.'' I strongly agree. I believe that if the Speaker allows a vote on the merits, a majority of the House of
    Representatives will approve the trade agreement. So I urge leaders in
    Congress to reconsider their position, recognize the stakes at hand, and
    approve the Colombia agreement as soon as possible.
        Thank you for listening.

    Note: The address was recorded at 7:35 a.m. on April 18 in the Cabinet
    Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on April 19. The
    transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on
    April 18, but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office
    of the Press Secretary

    [[Page 533]]

    also released a Spanish language transcript of this address.