Business Roundtable Expresses Strong Support for U.S.-Peru Trade Coalition Effort

U.S. Business to Seek Broad Bipartisan Congressional Support and Quick Consideration for Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

Washington, DC - Business Roundtable today applauded the launch of the U.S.-Peru Trade Coalition, a broad-based group of U.S. companies and business organizations working to secure Congressional approval of a Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA), calling it a strong indicator of the importance the U.S. business community is placing on the proposed U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement.

The Trade Promotion Agreement was signed today at a ceremony at the Organization of American States (OAS) attended by representatives from both countries.

"The U.S.-Peru TPA is comprehensive and will provide meaningful commercial opportunities for U.S. economic growth," said Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Chairman of Business Roundtable's International Trade & Investment Task Force. "A TPA with Peru is the next logical step as we seek to build stronger economic ties with South America's Andean Region and to continue to expand worldwide economic growth and opportunity."

Mr. McGraw added, "The Peru TPA also offers an ideal opportunity for bipartisanship in moving the trade agenda forward."

Since the U.S.-Chile FTA was implemented on January 1, 2004, U.S. exports have increased by over $3 billion, now totaling $6.7 billion annually.

Peru will offer similar opportunities for economic growth, with more than $2 billion in U.S. goods currently exported to Peru annually. While most Peruvian products already enter the U.S. duty free under the Andean Trade Preference Act, U.S. goods and services routinely face an average weighted tariff of 9 to 10 percent.

"It is time to make free trade a two-way street by giving American products and services the same duty-free access to the Peruvian market," Mr. McGraw continued. "This will lead to an increase in exports, benefiting U.S. business, workers and agriculture alike."

In addition to eliminating tariffs, Peru will remove barriers to trade in services, provide a secure, predictable legal framework for U.S. investors, and provide protection for intellectual property.

"The Peru TPA offers market access terms which will allow our services sector to grow and intellectual property provisions that are consistent with U.S. standards," continued Mr. McGraw. "We look forward to working toward a successful implementation of the U.S.-Peru TPA this year."

As a leader in the U.S.-Peru Trade Coalition, Business Roundtable will join with other business organizations representing virtually every sector of the U.S. economy to advocate Congressional approval of the trade pact this year.

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Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and represent nearly a third of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government. Collectively, they returned more than $98 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2004.

Roundtable companies give more than $7 billion a year in combined charitable contributions, representing nearly 60 percent of total corporate giving. They are technology innovation leaders, with $86 billion in annual research and development spending -- nearly half of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.

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