You probably don’t know much about me personally, but I’m sure you can infer that my origin is different than most. My name is Julio Cespedes, after all. In fact, I am from the only South American country with both an Atlantic and Pacific coastline: Colombia. Normally this would be of no consequence to you, but currently, Colombia is at the forefront of American politics. Let me elucidate. And please, don’t be intimidated by the length. I’ll keep it entertaining.
If our past has taught us anything, there are few things more detrimental to a country than presuming a shielded, closed position during a time of economic recession. Well, that is precisely our current condition due to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s barring of a vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
How did this happen? Well, the president gave the agreement to Congress for deliberation under the Trade Promotion Authority, which gave the House of Representatives 60 days to vote on the agreement, and contingent on passing, the Senate 30 days. What did Pelosi do instead? She decided to alter the policy and crumble the Trade Promotion Authority. Why?
Well, let me tell you in her words: “If you’re in a conversation with someone and they have all the cards, you’re not likely to have a winning hand. Now the leverage is with us.”
What a completely baseless, idiotic move, Pelosi. Besides completely undermining the president’s negotiating authority in future trade agreements by disbanding the important power of the Trade Promotion Authority, she is using the trade agreement as leverage and holding it hostage in order to achieve completely uncorrelated demands by congressional Democrats. They are currently trying to pass a $25 billion bailout for the three major U.S. auto companies. I wish I had more words to explain, but the situation is absolutely horrible. Basically, two of the biggest supporters of the Democratic Party are the big Union Bosses and go-green-world supporters.
And since they are both trying simultaneously to pull Pelosi’s strings, for they both contributed significantly to her election, a gigantic chaos is developing. For you see, the big Union Bosses want to use the money to continue the failed business plan that for years (before this economic crisis) has slowly been destroying them. The green supporters, on the other hand, want the money to go toward the research and development of much more earth-friendly vehicles. Poor Pelosi, she doesn’t know what to do, and unfortunately Colombia is caught in the crossfire.
Most of you think of Colombia as the land of civil unrest and cocaine, and you would have been quite accurate five to 10 years ago. Now, thanks to the U.S. and their Plan Colombia, since 2002, kidnappings have dropped by 83 percent, terrorist attacks are down by 76 percent and murders have dropped by 40 percent. The FARC is on the run. There are strong police presences in all of Colombia’s municipalities. And drugs? In 2006, Colombia removed 500 metric tons of cocaine off the market, and by 2007, maximum potential cocaine production was down more than 24 percent since 2001. This potentially kept hundreds of millions of dollars used for arms and attacks from terrorist groups.
How was this complete turnaround making Colombia a profitable market possible? American taxpayers. At the end of 2009, the U.S. will have spent $5.8 billion on military and police aid. The U.S. personally trained 37,000 soldiers for Colombia, and lost at least 11 men in the endeavor. What about Europe, the world’s second largest consumer of cocaine? Well, they issued nice-sounding grants for humanitarian assistance totally to a puny $91.4 million. Distinguishably, on top of the $5.8 billion, the U.S. spent millions more on economic aid, creating the now safe major cities that have potentially viable and profitable business environments.
Is it starting to make sense now why the U.S. should be the one with first dibs on Colombia? Let me explain it to you further. If passed, the trade agreement would lift tariffs on more than 80 percent of U.S. produced consumer and industrial commodities exported to Colombia. Exports are the fastest growing section of the U.S. economy. And since the indefinite halting of the vote on the agreement, American exporters have paid more than $1 billion in tariffs. On top of this, the American Farm Bureau approximates that the execution of this agreement will generate more than $1.8 billion for American agriculture and support nearly 10,000 jobs in the U.S.
So you might agree for the most part so far. But now you’re asking yourself, well, why the urgency to pass the trade agreement? It’s simple. The Europeans have done the same math the American economists have. They have signed their own agreement with Colombia, and starting this June, their $3 billion in goods (you can expect this number to significantly increase) will enter tariff free. They will grab America’s present export market, because they will be exporting almost the same products. America will continue paying 35 percent tariffs.
None of this seems to bother the Democratic Congress, and the one leading the charge, Pelosi. With her newly formed foolish economic isolationist ideals, she is giving up U.S. markets to foreign contenders. Her only argument for costing billions of dollars from the U.S. economy is that “we’re concerned about the violence against labor organizers, workers’ organizers, in Colombia, and we want to see progress made in that direction.”
You want to see progress? How about homicides of labor unionists decreasing from 200 in 2001 to less than 40 in 2007? How about President Álvaro Uribe establishing a special program to protect labor activists and 1,950 trade unionists receiving protection under that program?
Pelosi is playing a moronic quid pro quo game, and she is in danger of abandoning America’s lone ally in South America. Right now, it is literally being attacked on all sides. In Venezuela, Hugo Chavez spits anti-American messages daily. Bolivia recently expelled the United States ambassador. Ecuador is snubbing the renewal of a lease on an airbase used by American counternarcotics.
None of this is adequate enough reason for Pelosi. Have her and her Democratic Party of “no” become mere obstructionists blinded by their hatred for George W. Bush? They continue to offer only criticism with absolutely no presented solution. What an appalling desecration of U.S. taxpayer investment and commitment to a cause.
America stepped up to its responsibility. Europe did not. Thanks to Pelosi, they will soon be reaping the profits of our cleanup – our steak – and they’ll be eating it.
Julio Cespedes is a junior majoring in biological engineering. He can be contacted at [email protected].