Marathon Pundit: House passes Colombia, Panama, and S. Korea free trade agreements; Dold, Roskam, and Kinzinger statements

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

House passes Colombia, Panama, and S. Korea free trade agreements; Dold, Roskam, and Kinzinger statements

Good news for job creation. The House of representatives passed the Colombia, South Korea, and Panama free trade agreements.

Three Illinois congressmen applaud this news.

Robert Dold (R-10) issued this statement:

"Small businesses throughout the 10th District of Illinois depend on our ability to export to other countries," said Dold. "I voted to approve these trade agreements so that we can give local job creators an opportunity to expand and create new jobs. Right here in our district over 58,000 jobs rely on exports-the approval of these agreements will help increase exports and create new business right here at home."

Peter Roskam (R-06), the House Chief Deputy Whip, released his thoughts on the bills:

Today's passage of these pro-export agreements is a victory for our economy and American job creators. Millions of jobs across the U.S. depend on trade. Making it easier to sell our products abroad will open more markets for American companies, incentivize them to grow and hire, and in turn create more jobs here. American companies deserve to be on a level-playing field with our competitors.

With nearly double-digit national unemployment, we need commonsense economic policies that remove barriers to private-sector job creation. I am heartened that both parties and the President are coming together in support of these no-cost job creating policies.

And he spoke about the FTAs on the floor of the House today.

Here is what Adam Kinzinger (R-11) says:

In the Eleventh District, nearly 12,000 manufacturing and agriculture jobs are directly supported by exporting our goods. These industries grow and thrive when we expand our exporting services. In fact, one in three manufacturing jobs depend on trade, while one in every three acres of U.S. farmland is planted for export markets.

Today, the House has taken a major step forward by passing legislation to implement the three pending free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. In January, the new House Majority pledged to make the agreements a priority knowing that they would support 250,000 new American jobs, and increase exports by at least $13 billion -- all without requiring new government spending.