Big steps made toward free trade pacts with Panama, Colombia

04-15-2009 | GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A nine-member US Congressional delegation met with Torrijos and Uribe

Panama Star Schock, R-Peoria, was among only three Republicans on the nine-member Congressional trip led by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

He said such agreements will benefit agriculture and manufacturing in his 18th Congressional District. Free trade agreements “would be huge boons to companies here in Illinois and around the country that do international trade,” Schock said. “Caterpillar, for example, will benefit greatly.”

After the congressional delegation met with Panama President Martin Torrijos and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Hoyer pledged support for a Colombian free trade agreement and said he will ask U.S. President Barack Obama to send language to Congress to approve one.

Colombia already benefits from selling goods, including sugar and coffee, to the U.S. without tariffs. However, without the trade agreement, U.S.companies pay a significant tariff on their goods to Colombia, Schock said.

The delegation also met with government leaders in Mexico, where they discussed the drug trade. In Brazil, they met with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. In da Silva’s first meeting with members of Congress in five years, he discussed working with the U.S. to promote democracy and non-military means to come to power.

Brazil is at the forefront of alternative energy, with 80 percent of its electricity produced through hydropower. Schock said the U.S. can take cues from that country.