“The Agreements we are considering today are different than those negotiated by the Bush Administration. While Republicans were willing to support flawed agreements, Democrats used the intervening period to attempt to fix them so they work for U.S. businesses and workers and spread the benefits of trade more broadly.
“There was no delay - there were active efforts to hammer out good trade policy.
“If the South Korea agreement as originally negotiated by the Bush administration had been approved, the FTA would not have broken down the iron barrier to U.S. products in the automotive sector, which represented 75 percent of the large U.S. trade deficit with South Korea.
“The Korea FTA - very different as re-done by the Obama Administration - now opens South Korea’s market to U.S. automotive products and sets an important precedent for ensuring trade agreements replace one-way trade with two-way trade for American products. With those changes, I support the agreement.
“If the Panama FTA as originally negotiated by the Bush administration had been approved, the FTA would have been without the successful efforts of the Obama administration and congressional Democrats, which culminated with Panama this year bringing its labor laws into compliance with international labor standards. Also missing would have been the successful efforts to address our concerns about Panama’s status as a tax haven now rectified by Panama signing a Tax Information Exchange Agreement. That trade agreement now deserves our support.
“Colombian workers have long been without their basic rights due to a combination of inadequate laws, labor-related violence and impunity.
“Workers need basic labor rights to improve their financial standing and climb the economic ladder. This is critical to increasing U.S. exports and jobs. The development of a middle class creates consumers and robust markets for our products and services. It is also vital to U.S. workers who are correct in asserting they should not unfairly compete with workers whose rights are suppressed.
“Unfortunately, the Bush administration believed trade was an end - in and of itself - and rejected including meaningful workers’ rights and environmental standards in trade agreements.
“The U.S.-Colombia relationship is important in both economic and security terms, and the agreement provides new market opportunities. What prevented action was that despite the fact that the FTA opened some important markets for American products, it failed to address a fundamental shortcoming in terms of U.S. trade policy.
“The Action Plan Related to Labor Rights announced by President Obama and President Santos in April was a step toward addressing these basic problems.
“As I will spell out when we get to the Colombia FTA, there remain troubling problems with how Colombia is addressing key elements related to the Action Plan. The flaws are magnified by the failure to incorporate the Action Plan in the Implementation Bill as a result of the adamant refusal of Republicans - and the Obama administration’s acquiescence to that refusal.
“As a result, the U.S-Colombia FTA remains fundamentally flawed and I oppose it."
