[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 16 (Monday, April 28, 2008)]
[Pages 553-554]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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 also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.

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