WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s failure to lay out a timetable for winning congressional approval of free trade pacts with Colombia and Panama has blocked renewal of trade programs for the Andean region and displaced U.S. workers, a top Republican lawmaker said yesterday.
“Without this commitment from the administration, other trade measures — such as TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) and ATPA (Andean Trade Preferences Act), which we sought to extend this week — are now in limbo and American workers will suffer as a result,” House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp said in a statement.
Camp repeated his call for action on the Colombia and Panama agreements by July 1, as well as on an agreement with South Korea that the Obama administration already has said it would send to Congress in coming weeks.
The Colombia agreement, in particular, is unpopular with many Democrats because of strong opposition from U.S. labor groups, which say that country has not done enough to stop killings of trade unionists and prosecute the murderers.
This week U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said Obama had instructed him to intensify talks with Colombia and Panama to resolve concerns.
