Congressman Canseco Applauds Passage of the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 13th, 2011

Contact:  Valentina Weis
(202) 225-4511 or Valentina.Weis@mail.house.gov


Congressman Canseco Applauds Passage of the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements

Washington D.C. - Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco (TX-23), a leader on trade issues within the freshman class of the 112th Congress, released the following statement upon passage of the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements in the United States House of Representatives:

“Today, on a bipartisan basis, the House of Representatives passed significant jobs-creating legislation by passing the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements. Collectively, these agreements will boost American exports and expand the economy by billions of dollars, which will create thousands of new jobs here at home. In fact, according to one estimate these three trade agreements will create over 250,000 new jobs – all at zero cost to American taxpayers.

While the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea trade agreements will benefit all sectors of the American economy, these agreements are especially beneficial for American farmers and ranchers. In the 23rd District of Texas, which I have the privilege to represent, agriculture is an important part of the economy. These three agreements will expand market access for American agricultural producers and will ultimately boost American agricultural exports by billions of dollars. In rural areas, the added prosperity from expanded trade opportunities will have a huge, positive effect on the local economy.

I’m pleased that these jobs-creating agreements have finally seen the light of day and received a vote in the House of Representatives. For almost 5 years, these agreements have been held hostage by Washington liberals and their Big Labor allies in order to pursue a political agenda. In the mean time, our competitors around the world have been aggressively negotiating agreements. Not only has this failure resulted in missed opportunities to grow jobs here at home, it has hurt jobs here at home as the United States has lost market share to our competitors that have entered into trade agreements while we waited. For example, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the United States’ market share of Colombian agricultural imports slipped by almost 50% between 2008 and 2009 alone, and was taken by Brazil and Argentina who both have trade agreements with Colombia . Lost market share abroad means lost jobs here at home.

When 95% of the world’s consumers live outside the United States, it’s critical to job creation and our economy that we are competitive in the global marketplace. The Colombia, Panama, and South Korea Free Trade Agreements will ensure that that the United States not only maintains our competitive position in the world, but improves it.”

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