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BRT’s Trade Priorities for the 113th Congress

Business Roundtable President John Engler today outlined the Roundtable’s trade priorities for this Congress. An audio recording of the media briefing is here, with a transcript of the briefing here

Business Roundtable's International Trade and Investment Priorities

IT’S TIME TO ACT FOR AMERICA’S FUTURE

2013 CEO GROWTH AGENDA | FEBRUARY 2013

Opening Markets for International Trade and Investment

U.S. economic growth is linked with international trade and investment and the global marketplace like never before. Trade already supports more than one in five U.S. jobs,[1] and exports account for nearly 14 percent of U.S. GDP.[2] Since 2004, U.S. exports have grown faster than overall U.S. GDP, benefitting from strong growth rates in U.S. exports to trading partners such as the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India and China.[3] Moreover, U.S. exports to free trade agreement (FTA) partner countries have grown faster than U.S. exports to countries that do not have FTAs with the United States.[4] With overseas markets representing 95 percent of the world’s consumers and 80 percent of global purchasing power, America’s global competitiveness will increasingly depend on expanding U.S. trade and investment opportunities.[5]

For U.S. companies and workers to grow their exports, maintain and create jobs, and improve their international competitiveness, the United States needs an active trade and investment policy designed to open foreign markets and keep them open. The United States is pursuing some pending and new trade initiatives, but a more proactive and strategic approach is needed to help U.S. businesses and workers compete and succeed in growing international markets and to ensure that high U.S. standards for trade and investment are adopted globally. 

The CEOs of the Business Roundtable call on U.S. policymakers to expand international trade opportunities and eliminate market barriers to help support U.S. economic growth. Specifically, Congress and the Administration should:

  • Develop and implement active international trade and investment initiatives to help U.S. companies and workers increase their competitiveness in international markets; further rules-based, two-way trade; and ensure that U.S. and foreign markets remain open for investment by:
    • Aggressively pursuing strategic bilateral and regional initiatives such as the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership and a proposed Trans-Atlantic Partnership;
    • Actively pursuing multilateral negotiations such as those seeking a World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement and plurilateral negotiations such as those seeking an International Services Agreement;
    • Providing the President with new and updated international trade and investment negotiating authority;
    • Advancing negotiations on bilateral investment treaties with key trading partners, including China and India; and 
    • Vigorously enforcing U.S. rights to open markets and nondiscriminatory treatment under existing and future international agreements

 

  • Constructively engage China and other emerging growth countries by:
    • Using the opportunity of new leadership in China to enhance the U.S.-China trade and investment relationship;
    • Targeting the elimination of market access barriers and discriminatory treatment of U.S. exporters and investments through more dynamic bilateral, regional and multilateral initiatives, including investment treaty negotiations; and
    • Enforcing U.S. rights under international trade and investment rules to ensure that U.S. companies and workers are not disadvantaged by discriminatory foreign policies, such as indigenous innovation and other local preference requirements, and that other countries comply with those rules.

 

  • Eliminate U.S. regulatory impediments to exports, such as outdated export controls.

 

[1] Trade Partnership Worldwide, LLC (2010). “Trade and American Jobs: The Impact of Trade on U.S. and State-Level Employment, An Update.” Prepared for Business Roundtable.
 

[2] U.S. Census Bureau (2012). “Exports: Goods and Services, BOP Basis”; and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (2012). “Gross Domestic Product.”
 

[3] Slaughter, Matthew (2013). “American Companies and Global Supply Networks.” Prepared for Business Roundtable. P. 25.
 

[4] Export.gov (2012). “U.S. Free Trade Agreements.” Last updated October 22, 2012.
 

[5] United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2011). “World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision”; and International Monetary Fund (2012). “World Economic Outlook Database.”

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