Congress has just wrapped up a huge free trade package! They actually are allowing it to go to the floor for a vote around 4 p.m. Eastern! They darn well better pass it!

Not only will Peru, Colombia and Vietnam get some kind of trade relief for the next year (it’s temporary for the first two, but this is better than nothing), pretty much everyone else who wants free trade – The Caribbean, the African states, Ecuador & Bolivia, and Haiti – will get it too! This is fine! Better everyone in than nobody in. If that is what it takes to pass this for Colombia and Peru and Vietnam, count me in.

Even though plenty of these other states are run by odious governments (how ’bout that Bolivia?) every single one of these trade measures strengthens their country’s middle classes. These trade deals aren’t about strengthening odious governments – they are about strengthening their nations’ battered private sectors and giving them the wherewithal to stand up to such tyrants.

We’ve seen these kinds of freedoms expand in China and Vietnam because of their growing middle classes with purchasing power, who’ve gotten that through trade. Now, we will see these freedoms expand in lots of other places, too.

This is good news! No one thought any of this would ever make it to the floor. They were such incompetents in Congress and the White House that no one ever thought it would happen. Now, it is! Viva free trade!!!!

Free trade for everyone!!!

UDPATE: The first hurdle was cleared in the House today, now this omnibus bill is only awaiting clearance from the Senate. Vietnam is almost there!