Chuck Grassley: “over the past two decades, Congress has voted again and again to open markets to exports from Central America. In 1983…”

“over the past two decades, Congress has voted again and again to open markets to exports from Central America. In 1983, 392 Members of the House and 90 Members of the Senate voted unilaterally to reduce tariffs on exports from Central America and the Caribbean. In 2000, 309 Members of the House and 77 Senators voted in favor of the Trade and Development Act which further unilaterally opened our markets to products from Central America and the Caribbean. Today most imports from the region enter our market duty-free. In contrast--and the purpose of this legislation--our exports have faced and continue to face a myriad of tariffs and nontariff trade barriers into that region. Our products going that way, having tariffs and nontariff trade barriers, products coming this way to our country, no barriers. That is the status quo. In 2005, with the Central American Free Trade Agreement, Congress has the opportunity to reduce tariff barriers to our exports going to these countries. You can see it is a very unfair situation. If we maintain the status quo, it is unfair to American workers, American manufacturers, the economy of America, because their imports come into our country duty-free. Meanwhile, our exports that go to those countries face tariff barriers of from 3 to 16 percent, some tariffs ranging as high as even 150 percent.…”