Sam Farr: “I rise, Mr. Chairman, to state my concern with H.R. 4300, the so-called Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act. I just…”

“I rise, Mr. Chairman, to state my concern with H.R. 4300, the so-called Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act. I just really want to talk about a problem that I am aware of. I lived in Latin America in Colombia when I was a Peace Corps volunteer. A lot of Members do not realize that in 1991, we signed the Andean Trade Preference Act, ATPA. What we did in signing that act which President Bush brought to Congress where the act was intended to allow an alternative, a diversity of moving from growing coca and drug plants to growing flowers. Since that time, the Colombian and Andean trade pact countries have duty-free flowers coming into the United States. What has happened? They have now 70 percent of the American flower market. Who has been hurt by that? American flower growers. I mean really hurt. This is a noncompetitive advantage that we have. Any other flowers that we import from Asia or import from Europe have to pay a tariff. It is only the Andean trade pact countries that do not. So my concern with the bill is we are authorizing in the bill $10 million to urge Colombian farmers and others to stop growing crops that may be used to create illegal drugs. I think we need to deal with this issue that we have opened up in the Andean trade pact and not give them another $10 million until we have gotten something back like requiring them to pay tariffs on their imports.”