McCain supports Colombia free trade
TEXT OF STORY
Scott Jagow: John McCain is in Colombia today. Not South Carolina — South America. McCain supports a free trade deal with Colombia. Barack Obama does not. Dan Grech has more from our America’s Desk at WLRN.
Dan Grech: Trade between the U.S. and Colombia last year was $18 billion. The country is our fourth-largest trading partner in Latin America, and a key political ally.
But a free trade deal with Colombia is stalled in Congress. Democrats, including Obama, say Colombia needs to reduce violence against labor leaders.
Michael Shifter: McCain wants to show that Obama and the Democratic Party are abandoning close allies like Colombia.
That’s Michael Shifter with the Inter-American Dialogue. He says the Colombian free trade pact is unlikely to come up for a vote until after the election in November. Building support now will be difficult for McCain.
Shifter: The timing, I think, is unfortunate, given the bad economic news in the United States. And it’s unclear whether this is really a winning issue, right now, to talk about the virtues of free trade.
McCain’s next stop is Mexico, where he’s going to be touting another issue with little political resonance: the war on drugs.
I’m Dan Grech for Marketplace.
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