Remarks by the President on the Economy

Business Wire, May 2, 2008

And finally another interesting idea is to let the states' housing authorities issue tax-free bonds, which will then provide more money for refinancing.

Finally, I do want to talk about trade. It's an interesting subject here in America. A lot of people who say, trade is bad for our country. We shouldn't be a nation that opens up markets -- that's what they're saying. Unless of course, you're a Missouri farmer who's selling your product into foreign markets. Unless, of course, you're World Wide Technology, which is expanding in a robust way and is looking for new markets. By the way, it's in your interests if you're working for World Wide that markets be open. If you're good at what you're doing -- and you are, obviously; otherwise you wouldn't be successful -- then trade policy ought to make it easier for you to enter foreign markets.

All I want is for America to be treated the way we treat other nations. I think that's a reasonable thing to ask. And so let me talk about the Colombia free trade agreement. You might have been reading about that lately. It's one of these issues that has created consternation -- at least in Washington. Most goods from Colombia come into the United States duty-free. That's a result of longstanding congressional policy. Most of our goods and services are taxed going into Colombia. Most goods coming here come in duty-free; most goods produced in the United States, or services like yours, pay a tariff. That means a tax; it's more expensive. It's harder to get into the market because what you charge is upped by tax.

I think it makes sense to have Congress say, we want Colombia to treat us just the way we treat Colombia. It turns out 9,000 businesses export into Colombia in the United States, 8,000 of which are small and mid-sized businesses. Isn't that interesting? Many of the people benefitting, people working for companies that export into Colombia work for small businesses and medium-sized businesses.

But Congress doesn't see it that way right now. A lot of members of Congress do, but they have absolutely shut down the vote on the Colombia free trade agreement. And I think it's irresponsible. If you're worried about the state of the economy, we ought to be opening up markets, not shutting down markets. We ought to be insisting we're treated fairly.

And I'll tell you another problem. In not moving the Colombia free trade agreement, we are turning our back on a very strong ally of the United States of America. There's a President of Colombia named Uribe, and he's got a tough situation down there because he's dealing with what's called FARC, which is an extremist group that uses drug dollars to perpetuate violence and to move their products -- mainly to here. And here's a man who says, I'm going to deal with them, I'm going to be tough with them. And then all of a sudden the United States Congress turns its back on him. What kind of message is that?

And so I strongly urge the Congress to understand that opening up markets is good for our economy. But I also strongly urge the Congress to understand -- whether it would be Colombia or Panama or Korea -- that we can't be turning our backs on our allies. This is good economics and it's good national security.