A group of 15 Republican Senators is calling on the Obama administration to provide a "well-defined and finite list" of outstanding issues that Colombia, South Korea and Panama need to address in order for their pending free trade agreements to be considered by Congress.
"If the president is serious about doubling our nation's exports over the next five years and confronting our near ten percent unemployment rate then he needs to stop listening to big labor and take action on these trade accords," Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. "Every day that we fail to act on these trade agreements, American businesses, farmers, and workers are losing out to our international competitors."
The three pending FTAs, negotiated by the Bush administration, remain stalled and have not been brought up for congressional consideration. The U.S.-Korea FTA was signed in June 2008, while the U.S.-Colombia FTA was signed over three years ago.
