[Q] - Europe moved to sign a free trade treaty with Colombia last week, gaining a vibrant new market. But it was U.S. aid that made such a market possible.
...European Union is going for it. It will sign off on a free-trade agreement with Colombia and its neighbor Peru by June 2009. It's a strong opportunity, because 10 years ago Colombia was a drug- trafficking hellhole with 30,000 murders a year. It's now transformed into a safe country that values rule of law and has attractive emerging markets opening up. The change didn't come out of nowhere. ...Why did Colombia become such an attractive market? It's not just good leadership and citizens fed up with drugs and terrorism. It's because the U.S. spent a decade cleaning up the country. Plan Colombia and other programs contributed decisively to Colombia's peace and security, laying the groundwork for new markets to form. According to the Center for International Policy's Just the Facts database, the U.S. will have shelled out $5.8 billion in military, police, economic and social aid to Colombia from 1996 through 2009. Washington trained 37,000 soldiers to become a professional fighting force. The U.S. lost at least 11 service members in that effort. How much did Europe contribute? Not much. In September, Colombia's President Uribe called out Europe for its stingy aid, scolding it for doing little even though Europe is the world's second-largest consumer of cocaine, spending $10 billion a year on the drug. ...Yet that's not good enough for Pelosi. In pretending that there's no world outside our borders, she has ultimately handed U.S. markets over to foreign competitors. It's a sorry waste of U.S. resources, investment and commitment. The Europeans are eating our lunch and Nancy Pelosi is feeding them. - http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=311560284532957 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
