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Bush is submitting the Colombia FTA for a vote.
Congress must vote on it within 90 days. Congress may not amend
it. This is the wonderful world of Fast Track. Fast Track
died in June, 2007, but the Colombia FTA is grandfathered... so Fast
Track is "undead" as if in a bad horror movie.
We need a national strategy and retooling of trade policy before approving any more deals.
You may have
doubted my claims that trade has precedence over all other policies our
government deals with. Doubt no more. Watch Fast Track work.
There are thousands of bills are filed in Congress each
year. But the Fast Track law says Congress must vote once the
Administration submits the bill. In 90 days. Trade
agreements have priority over everything else. Farm Bills,
budgets, defense bills, and all other bills do not have to be voted
upon in 90, 120, or 180 days - though they are important.
The
debate is not about what is in the Colombia FTA. That argument is
virtually moot because you can't amend the deal negotiated by U.S.
Trade Representative bureaucrats. The debate is about whether you
are a protectionist or not. Are you for trade or against
trade. Its whether you want to help Colombian president Uribe
beat back Chavez of Venezuela. Just an "upper-down" vote.
The Colombia FTA continues the outsourcing of NAFTA, CAFTA, the Peru
FTA, etc. The agreement should be rejected. It is bad for
the economy, bad for workers, bad for the environment, and bad for
democracy. If they want to help Uribe vis-a-vis Chavez, use
foreign policy tools. Don't continue giving away our economy.
Again,
let's trade. But let's develop a better way to do it without
currency manipulation, border adjustable taxes, democracy forfeiture,
and product safety risks. Then implement trade agreements that
work.
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