Trade Deal With Panama,
Colombia Doubtful This Year
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer said Thursday it was doubtful
that the House this year will take up
pending free trade agreements with Colombia,
Panama and South Korea. Hoyer, D-Md., said
he supports the bilateral agreements and
wanted to see them pass eventually, but that
there still needed to be assurances that
they abided by existing trade enforcement
rules.
Hoyer's office confirmed details of his
remarks, which were made at a breakfast
sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor.
The George W. Bush administration signed the
agreement with Colombia in 2006 and the
accords with Panama and South Korea in 2007.
But they do not go into effect until they
are approved by the House and the Senate.
Former President Bush and Republicans pushed
for congressional action, but trade deals
have been relegated to the back burner since
Democrats gained the majorities in Congress
in 2007. Democrats, and their labor allies,
are generally more wary of free trade deals,
saying they contribute to the loss of
American jobs.
The office of the U.S. Trade Representative,
in its annual trade policy agenda released
last month, said it continues to believe
that the three agreements "can bring
significant economic and strategic
benefits." But it said "serious questions"
remain about some aspects of the agreements
and "we will continue to engage with the
governments of Panama, Colombia, and Korea
as we further refine our analysis of these
issues."
Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the
House Ways and Means Committee, which
oversees trade, at a news conference Monday
did not rule out taking up any of the deals
this year, but said they all needed more
work which would delay congressional
consideration.
Among the issues, Levin said the Panama deal
does not provide enough safeguards to keep
American taxpayers from hiding assets in
Panamanian banks, that Korean markets are
still closed to American automobiles and
that Colombia still has problems with worker
rights.
Hoyer said the deal with Korea is the most
controversial of the three. With its far
larger economy, it could also be the most
lucrative. The agreement, under which 95
percent of bilateral trade in consumer and
industrial products would be traded duty
free within three years of enactment, could
add some $10 billion a year to U.S.
merchandise exports to that country.
Reps. Dave Camp and Kevin Brady, top
Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee,
said last month that "the best way to
promote exports is to act on the pending
trade agreements and open new markets in
which we can sell American-made goods and
services. The president has admitted these
agreements could create over 250,000
American jobs, yet Democrats in Congress
refuse to work on, let alone pass, a new
trade agreement."
They were responding to President Barack
Obama's plans for promoting exports. |
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