ms. ellard. again, ms. ellard and mr. reif are here to answer any questions. are there any questions or other discussion? mr. levin? >> as i said in my opening statement, i very much support this agreement. i'm sorry mr. schock isn't here. i just want to say it's very mistaken to say that we should not into trade agreements take to the nation's. essentially what trade agreements due in large measure is nation's dictate to each other. that's what an agreement is. and we have an agreement required as to ipr, those are dictates, after customs, as to transparency, so it's really wrong to simply say because it's worker rights we should not be dictating. indeed, what we are doing in agreements is setting standards for lots of things. and what we did in the peru agreement was to add standards as to labor environment. and those provisions now are in the panama agreement. the problem with panama, that their worker rights provisions were not consistent with basic ilo standards. and i'm sorry mr. ryan isn't

ms. ellard, perhaps you can enlighten us, what were the taxes that colombian producers of flowers, coffee, paid to the united states citizens and companies in terms of trading their goods to our economy? >> the average tariff paid by imports from colombia into the united states was less than 1%. by contrast, the average tariff paid by u.s. exports to columbia was 11.2%. so it it is fair to say that the people being put at a competitive disadvantage by inaction is not colombia and the united states, but perhaps simply the united states? >> yes, i think that is accurate. >> oprah care about jobs and growing our economy, i would urge passage of this bill. >> mr. thompson is recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman. for more than 20 years, colombia has benefited greatly from duty- free access into u.s. markets under the andean trade preferences act. at the same time, they have also enjoyed lucrative government subsidies, and sometimes even u.s. foreign aid to benefit their access into our market. one thing that has done in my home state of california is that it has devastated the cut flower ind