Lindsey Graham: “I am here this evening with a tinge of sadness. At midnight last night, one of the most important and successful efforts…”

“I am here this evening with a tinge of sadness. At midnight last night, one of the most important and successful efforts in the United States to build better relations with our neighbors in Latin America expired. After 10 years of successful service to the United States and the four countries of the Andean region--Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia--the Andean Trade Preference Act expired of its own accord last night, and the Congress has not allocated the time necessary for its extension. This landmark trade agreement, which was passed in 1991, has helped the United States and these four countries to develop legitimate, strong, expanding commercial ties, and it has contributed substantially to the goal of stabilizing the economies and political systems of these four countries by encouraging a diversification of their economies. To look backwards, in the last full year before the Andean Trade Preference Act was passed, the United States imported $12.7 billion from these four Andean countries, primarily in traditional agricultural commodities such as coffee and bananas. In the year 2000, the United States imported $28.5 billion from these countries--a 125-percent increase. Much of this increase was in new and frequently nontraditional areas of economic activity for these four countries.”