Kevin Brady: “But when we try to sell our goods and services around the world, we find too much of it blocked. As we have said before…”

“But when we try to sell our goods and services around the world, we find too much of it blocked. As we have said before, it's not enough anymore to just buy American. We have to sell American. We have to sell our goods and services throughout the world. But when we do, we find so much of the world is closed off, locked away from us. Colombia, a great partner, has been selling their goods and services into America since 1991, but we face real barriers when we try to do the same, and this trade agreement creates that two-way trade. For Texas I know it's critical. We're the largest seller of goods to Colombia. We sell about a little over a billion dollars a year in chemicals, construction, equipment and machinery and computers. And under this agreement we would sell another billion dollars of not only that but grapefruit and beef and financial services. A number of services our small businesses could sell into Colombia, our neighbor in the backyard and in our hemisphere. So we lost jobs here in America. Colombia lost jobs because they lost a guaranteed market because by not acting, by changing the rules, they are now coming at a disadvantage to their neighbors, in Peru and Central American countries. So they actually lost ground from a jobs perspective. And, finally, to turn our back on what a tremendous ally, as you have noted over and over, who has made such great progress, who we deserve to engage more and be a stronger partner with, not to turn our back on, it's a huge loss.”