Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you to each of you for joining us today.
Monsieur Lemelin, the materials that you provided us quote a senator in Colombia, Senator Alexander López, who is a member of the Polo party, and he says: “We don't believe in free trade, period. It's simply a bad way to develop healthy relations between two nations.” He goes further and says, “Free trade is a new form of colonization and Polo rejects it.”
The Polo party in the recent legislative elections in Colombia at the Senate level garnered 7.6% of the popular vote and at the Congressional level garnered 5.9%, and in two recent polls in the presidential election the Polo party has about 5% of the support. All of the other political parties in Colombia in these elections support free trade and these FTAs.
Don't you find it a little culturally condescending to tell 95% of Colombians that what they want in terms of a free trade agreement is somehow bad for them?