Charles Rangel: “Mr. Speaker, as most of us know, some time ago in 1991, President Bush, with bipartisan support, reached out to the…”

“Mr. Speaker, as most of us know, some time ago in 1991, President Bush, with bipartisan support, reached out to the Andean countries and extended favorable treatment as related to their exports to the United States. This has proven successful in making it possible for these countries to get substitute crops for coca, and, therefore, it has been tremendously successful in building up a market for the people in this area, as well as people in the United States of America. Right now, however, there are four free trade agreements that are pending that haven't passed the House as yet, which includes, of course, Peru. So as we speak, there are two countries for which free trade agreements have not been negotiated, Colombia and Peru. If we were to allow this provision to expire, we would find ourselves in the situation where these countries and their tariffs would be in disarray. Because of the shortness of notice, and because we have to avoid the expiration, I have been able to work with Mr. McCrery in our committee to get, not a 2-year extension that we would really want, but at least an 8-month extension to avoid irreparable damage from being caused during this period.”