U.S. Falls Further Behind on Free Trade
Posted December 2nd, 2008 at 9.25am in American Leadership.
Last week while we were all getting ready to feast on turkey, Colombia inked another free trade deal with a country that is not us. Following up on trade liberalization pacts with Canada and China, Colombian trade minister, Luis Guillermo Plata signed a deal with the four members of the European Free Trade Association: Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway.
Colombia’s goods already enter the U.S. duty free. But this summer, at the behest of organized labor, Speaker Nancy Pelosi single handily destroyed over three decades of U.S. credibility on trade by gutting the “fast track” guarantee key to U.S. Trade Promotion Authority and killing the Colombia FTA.
Now businesses from Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway will join those from Canada and China that already enjoy a built in ‘tariff free’ competitive advantage over U.S. companies in the Colombian market.
- Author: Conn Carroll
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December 3, 2008 baxter999 Utah writes:
Pelosi may indeed be the devil’s spawn but I agree on fair trade rather than “free trade”. Because of the balance-of-trade, industry type and US regulations, “free” trade is often anything but fair. Since we have such a poor balance-of-trade we should be charging tariffs for access to our markets and to make up for our safety and environmental regulations. And the last thing we need is to send more jobs to another country. Yes on fair trade, no on free trade.