As I have expressed several times, Congress needs to pass the Colombia Free Trade Act. The New York Times Editorial Board stated their support for the agreement today. The opening sentence makes you do a double take, and reveals just how overwhelming the facts are to support this agreement.
Choice excerpts:We don’t say it all that often, but President Bush is right: Congress should pass the Colombian free-trade agreement now.
We believe that the trade pact would be good for America’s economy and workers. Rejecting it would send a dismal message to allies the world over that the United States is an unreliable partner and, despite all that it preaches, does not really believe in opening markets to trade.
We, too, have strong concerns about human-rights violations committed by the government of President Álvaro Uribe. But Democrats opposing the trade pact on these grounds are ignoring undeniable improvements. Violence has abated considerably during the Uribe administration as it has taken on the left-wing guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and right-wing paramilitaries. The number of trade unionists killed, a major Democratic concern, is still too high but has dropped sharply.
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