Excerpt: U.S. President Barack Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos met Thursday to iron out the details of a U.S.-Colombia free-trade pact. Despite applause from Illinois-based Caterpillar Inc. and the National Association of Manufacturers, skepticism remains that the pact will yield much significant benefit for the struggling U.S. Economy… “Over the years that this has been in development, the administration always said it was a good trade agreement,” said Chuck Dittrich, National Foreign Trade Council vice president for regional trade initiatives. “What this means for a manufacturer is really indirect,” Dittrich added. “A U.S. manufacturer exporting products to Colombia is not really going to be affected by improvements in Colombia’s protection from violence by their trade unionists. But what it does show us is that manufacturers are exporting, and competitively exporting, to a country that has demonstrated they’re committed to the same values that we are.”
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=184396
