New Doors to Andean Trade

Long-stemmed roses, auto parts and asparagus. Smack and crack.

The first three products are among those that the Andean Trade Preference Act encourages people in four South American countries to export to the United States. The other two products, made from opium poppies and cocaine derived from coca plants, are surely in a bit shorter supply here as an indirect result of the act.

“The program works,” Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle recently said of the modest but effective international trade program, which lowers tariffs on certain products from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

He’s right. The U.S. is the leading export market for each of these countries, and two-way trade has increased dramatically, from $9.2 billion in 1992 to almost $18 billion in 2000. The act has helped these countries spur legitimate economic development and aided the troubled region’s democracies.

When the act, passed in 1991, lapsed late last year, the Bush administration offered a temporary relief measure. That expires May 16. We urge the U.S. Senate to follow the lead of the House of Representatives, President Bush and Sen. Daschle and embrace legislation by Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) to renew the act. With its proposed enhancements it would add apparel and a handful of other products to the list subject to the lower tariffs.

The U.S. textile industry opposes the bill, arguing that it could drive U.S. jobs abroad. Graham and a coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats, including Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Charles Hagel (R-Neb.) and Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), counter that the bill would merely offer equal opportunity so the Andean countries could compete with Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean in trading with the U.S.

Indeed, the Andean trade pact is presently a missing component in the United States’ significant commitment to a region where drug dealers are major employers and armed rebellion has never stayed dormant for long.

Increased trade means increased opportunities for the peasants. And increased stability in the hemisphere.