Notes from the Debate: Facts on Colombian Free Trade

Congress, oh mighty home of the ineffectual part two, Colombian Lobbyists have put the full court press on Congress to approve a free trade agreement that would eliminate tariffs and normalize trade relations between that Andean Republic and ourselves. Businesses here look to benefit far more than their Colombian brethren as our tariffs on Colombian exports are significantly lower then Colombian’s tariffs on our exports. Congress seems to oppose the deal on human rights grounds, which would at least be a legitimate base for discussion except we are supplying the country with billions of dollars of munitions, financial aid, and we have special forces in country training their soldiers. This is akin to Congress and Senator Obama saying, “here’s large pistol and a box of explosives, Let me show you how to use them. But, no, we don’t trust you to sell us guava juice. “ If the Colombian regime is so egregious that it would be criminal to trade with them then it seems beyond belief that we should be arming them. If instead, as our strongest ally in South America and a country which has made great strides in ending its own civil war with our aid, we deny them a trading deal they want that would in the short term benefit our producers more then theirs, well, it seems a gross inconsistency bordering on madness. Oh, and naturally they have exportable oil. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a friendly country close by with oil to sell now that Chavez is drifting into cloud coocoo land? Oh well… perhaps just another example of Senator Obama’s habit of voting present when the tough issues come up.