FTAs Need Your Help
The United States long ago negotiated free trade agreements with South Korea and Colombia, but neither the Obama nor the Bush administrations have been able to get them approved by the U.S. Senate. Now is your chance to give a hand to increasing U.S. trade with these markets. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has opened a public comment period on the FTA agreements and you have until September 15 to make your views known. Past FTAs have shown huge beneficial effects for America’s trade and there is no reason to think that the FTAs with Korea and Colombia would do otherwise. Comment on the agreements here for Korea and here for Colombia.
Here in Hawaii, we naturally think of the Korea FTA first, but the Colombia FTA could prove useful as well. Hawaii has good trade with Korea already, and has many historical, cultural and business ties with Korea. Past FTAs have benefited Hawaii’s export industries, witness the increases shown in Hawaii’s exports from these past FTAs (since their inception years):
U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement 125% increase since 2004
U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreement 120% increase since 2004
U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement 1,342% increase since 2005
I suspect the impact of the Korea FTA will be similar to the boost we got from the U.S./Australia agreement!
You can find more about the Korea FTA here and the Colombia FTA here, including the full texts of the agreements.
And write to your senators, too!
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October 9th, 2009 at 10:12 am
We’re still waiting for the Congress to act on the U.S./South Korea FTA. Just want to note that the EU and South Korea are set to sign an FTA on October 15.