Sean Hackbarth of the US Chamber of Commerce posts that
Today, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Canada and Colombia went into effect. Canadian workers and businesses get to reap the benefits of lower duties and expanded trade, while Americans wait for Washington to act on the pending FTAs with Colombia, South Korea, and Panama.
As I have pointed out in the past,
The Democrats in Congress had been holding up final approval of the Free Trade Agreement with Colombia for years, lacking support of their Big Labor constituents, particularly the United Auto Workers.
With Colombia, it’s Americans who are having to pay export fees and duties, while the US is losing market share to other countries – Canada included, now.
Back to Sean,
not passing the Colombia FTA hurts American companies and workers. According to U.S. Wheat Associates, “the United States could lose $100 million in wheat sales each year as a result of our tariff disadvantage.” And staff from the House Ways and Means committee point out that “in the past two years, U.S. farmers and ranchers have lost more than $1 billion in sales to Colombia.”
And so we wait.
UPDATE,
Outsourcing Jobs, Union-Style
