"Passing trade adjustment assistance is critical," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech to the Washington International Trade Association. "For us, it has to be right up their with the three FTAs," he said.
Congress approved a major expansion of the decades-old trade adjustment assistance program as part of the 2009 economic stimulus bill. It expired at the start of the year and attempts to renew the expanded program failed because of objections from many Republicans to its cost.
Kirk also called for renewal of two trade programs for developing countries, the Generalized System of Preferences and the Andean Trade Preferences Act, that have expired.
He told the group his office was still translating a report it received from the Colombian government on initial steps Bogota has taken to implement a plan to address U.S. concerns about workers rights and anti-union violence.
Kirk said U.S. officials needed to compare that report with the commitments Colombia has made before deciding when to ask Congress to begin work on drafting a bill to implement the U.S.-Colombia free trade pact. (Reuters)
