Please Support the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA)

Senator Barack Obama
U.S. Senate
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-0001

Dear Senator Obama,

I am writing to urge you to support a two-year extension of the
Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA), which is set to expire on
June 30th.

For more than 15 years, the United States has extended
preferential duty-free market access to imports from Bolivia,
Colombia, Ecuador and Peru as a means of stimulating economic
growth and poverty reduction. These trade preferences have
contributed to the development of manufacturing and agricultural
sectors and have helped create jobs, in many cases for women,
who have relatively few economic alternatives. Businesses in the
United States have also benefited from preferences, relying on
goods imported duty-free to be used as inputs into products that
are manufactured here. Furthermore, requirements for
participation in U.S. preference programs have been used to
bring about greater respect for workers’ rights.

Poverty and inequality continue to be pervasive in Andean
countries. Half of the population lives in poverty, and the
richest 10 percent of the population takes home over 40 percent
of national income, while the poorest 10 percent receives less
than 1.4 percent. Bolivia is the poorest country in the region:
63.9 percent of its population lives in poverty, and the richest
20 percent of the population receives 64.5 percent of national
income, while the poorest 20 percent receives just 1.5 percent.

Clearly, poverty and illicit drug cultivation in Andean
countries are problems of concern to the United States, not
simply for humanitarian reasons. Pervasive poverty generates
social unrest that can spill over borders and also spurs
migration, while Andean coca production feeds US drug markets
that spread social ills here at home. These problems need to be
addressed through U.S. foreign policy and counter-narcotics
strategy. But foreign aid alone is not sufficient. Our trade
policy has and should continue to play a role as well by
extending trade preferences to all four countries in the Andean
region.

The United States is the Andean countries’ most important
trading partner. Over half of Andean country exports to the
United States now enter under ATPA, and an estimated 2.3 million
jobs (5.8 percent of the economically active population) in the
Andean countries depend on these exports. In the case of
Bolivia, two-thirds of exports under ATPA are manufactured
products - such as jewelry, apparel, and wooden furniture - made
by small-scale businesses that provide decent, formal-sector
jobs. Non-traditional agricultural exports like cut flowers and
asparagus have also gained under ATPA, although petroleum-based
products still make up about two-thirds of the value of Andean
exports that enter the U.S. under this preference program.

I urge you to ensure that this important trade preference
program can continue without expiring for at least another two
years. Failure to act would deeply effect those living in
poverty in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Sincerely,
Thor Farrow

~ by Thor on June 27, 2007.