Political Quotes

“I do stand here today because of my role as chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, understanding the interrelationship between our foreign policy and our economic policy. Offering the promise of greater trade with the United States to the Andean countries is a critical component of our foreign policy. The original ATPA was created to foster legitimate economic relations between the United States and the Andean region and to stimulate legitimate economic alternatives to narcotics production and trafficking in the Andean region. The ATPA has been successful in both counts. It has helped to foster trade between the U.S. and the Andean countries, and it has nearly doubled over the last decade the trade with that region to $18 billion, to the mutual benefit of U.S. and Andean businesses, and to consumers here in the United States. At one level, expanded trade is about consumerism. Lower tariffs means lower prices for the U.S. consumers, families, and businesses that import products from these countries.”