Charles Rangel: “The Andean Trade Preference Promotion Act continues to enjoy broad bipartisan support, and I believe the program is…”

“The Andean Trade Preference Promotion Act continues to enjoy broad bipartisan support, and I believe the program is needed because we have a responsibility to ensure that our market, the largest in the world, remains open to the products from developing nations. ATPA is a program that is helping to reduce poverty and strengthen our economic ties with our hemisphere, but it really is only one scheme of many. The generalized system of preferences is also a vital tool we use to fight global poverty and better engage with developing countries. As you know, the duty-free treatment GSP provides to imports coming from developing nations like India and Brazil is at risk of being eliminated by the Bush administration. In the case of India, the tariffs the Bush administration will propose on Indian jewelry will cause the loss of 300,000 jobs, and that would weaken our strategic alliance with an important ally. In this case, what's bad for India is also bad for the United States.”