Posted on 05/14/2007 7:54:55 AM PDT by Kitten Festival
Commerce: After two years of gloom, Congress has seized the lead on free trade. Its green light for Peru and Panama pacts strengthens our allies and breaks a trail for bipartisanship. This is real progress.
The accord Congress reached Thursday with the Bush administration marks the first true act of bipartisanship since the Democrats won Congress in 2006. The bickering's gone, and this time the vote was more than "symbolic."
Members like Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., showed leadership in bringing back free trade from its moribund state. His office tells us he was tired of Congress' do-nothingism and wanted to work.
His example and others marks a return to more productive times, as in 1993 when Republicans and Democrats came together to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement. Those involved say agreement was reached in an atmosphere very different from the arm-twisting politics of 2005's Central American Free Trade Pact, which narrowly passed in a Republican Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
What will they buy from us?
Quickly that drunk will do something stupid
Equipment from companies like Caterpillar and John Deere. Trucks from Freightliner, Mack and PACCAR.
They will buy military equipment from Boeing, L3, etc
They will buy more agricultural products from us.
It will lessen the need for Chavez and increase the importance of North America to these nations in the infancy of democracy.
Why not? We would be lending to businesses, not the government. Our banks would make the profit on the loan interest.
The headline had me worried; I thought some environmental wacko had devised a free trade scheme to sell sunlight credits or restrict its use to daylight hours only.
We sold them $12 billion in 1996, $55 billion in 2006.
See how that works?
Yes.
Ra Raing for the Chicoms again i see. I’ll ping rude for you.
We can either buy from China, which is an enemy, or buy from Colombia, which is a loyal and faithful pro-American friend. Because we are going to buy from one of them. You decide.
I think they're immune to logic.
Machinery, wheat, cows, beef (shortage there because hungry Venezuelans are buying all their beef), software, cars, services, tractors, basically, everything we can make or service.
Beautifully said.
Won’t happen - they are creating an actual economy in that country, with private-sector jobs and taxes. They are cutting bureaucrats, they are making it easy to start businesses, they are one of the very few that’s moving in the sustainable direction. They are going for it honestly. It’s so unlike most of the third world, whose only mantra is gimme gimme gimme. All these guys want is opportunity to trade without customs duties, same as Mexico gets.
Speaking as one who has worked in Panama, it is bad enough that said country signed an MLAT, thereby ending its bank secrecy laws that made Panama a major banking center in the 1980s. I hope that whatever free trade deal gets signed does NOT involve further "sharing of information" on bank accounts.
Whoops, I’m sorry, my reply was for GasolineAlley, who asked about China, not you.
We can either buy from China, which is an enemy, or buy from Colombia, which is a loyal and faithful pro-American friend. Because we are going to buy from one of them. You decide.
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