Posted by
Dave on Thursday, May 08, 2008 9:39:16 AM
As detailed in a previous post, Democrats in the House of Representatives effectively killed the Columbia Free Trade Agreement, thus passing on a chance to expand the market for American goods and services in Columbia and assist an ally against Hugo Chavez. Nature abhors a vacuum, and in our absence, our friends to the north are stepping in to fill the vacuum left by our short-sighted, protectionist, anti-trade legislature.
As reported by Bloomberg:
Canada's Trade Minister David Emerson said he may soon complete a free trade agreement with Colombia...
…Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made strengthening ties with Latin America a priority in an effort to broaden markets for Canadian commodities and reduce dependence on a slowing U.S. economy. Harper says the trade accord also will help Colombia stem violence against labor leaders.
An agreement would give Canadian farmers preferential access to the U.S.'s third largest market for wheat exports in Latin America. It also underscores the risks of growing trade protectionism in the U.S. that includes labor union efforts to thwart a trade accord with South Korea, said Jeffrey Schott, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.
Instead of easier access to American products, the Columbian consumer will find Canadian products less expensive and more readily available. Keep in mind this vital information: as mentioned in a previous post, 93% of Columbian products already enter the United States tariff-free; the Columbian Free Trade Agreement would remove the tariffs on American goods entering Columbia. The action taken by Nancy Pelosi's House (and supported by Senators Clinton and Obama) hurts US manufacturers and farmers as well as Columbian consumers. Fortunately for the Canadians, their Parliamentary leadership is not so short-sighted and isolationist as ours.