Hatch Statement on Senate Finance Committee Markup of Trade Pacts

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement regarding tomorrow’s Committee “mock” markup of the draft implementing bills for the Colombia, Panama, and South Korea trade agreements and extension of the domestic spending program, Trade Adjustment Assistance:

“While Republicans continue to believe that adding TAA to the trade agreements is an abuse of long-standing trade rules, tomorrow members will have the time to fully examine and consider our trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, and offer amendments.”

Last week, in a letter to the President, the Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee laid out their opposition to including expanded Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in the U.S.- South Korea Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and laid out their position that the three trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Colombia, and TAA should be “debated and considered in the Senate on its merits.”

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