Business Roundtable Steps Up Effort to Promote Peru TPA

New State Fact Sheets Illustrate Widespread Benefits of Peru Trade to U.S. Economy

Washington, D.C. - Business Roundtable applauded this week's Senate Finance Committee hearing on the proposed U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (TPA), calling it an important step towards Congressional approval of the agreement this year. Business Roundtable, an association of 160 chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, has strongly endorsed the Peru TPA as an excellent opportunity to increase beneficial ties with a growing South American economy.

To help promote the benefits of the Peru TPA, Business Roundtable also released a series of state-by-state fact sheets, highlighting the prospective impact of increased trade with Peru on the individual economies of U.S. states.

The state-by-state fact sheets utilize U.S. Department of Commerce data and International Trade Commission analysis to provide a look at how a state's key export sectors will benefit from increased trade with Peru. Each fact sheet also estimates the dollar savings state export sectors will realize when Peru reduces its duties, as required by the terms of the U.S.-Peru TPA.

"The Peru TPA will be of great benefit to many sectors of the U.S. economy and to states across the country," said Brigitte Schmidt Gwyn, Director of International Trade and Fiscal Policy, Business Roundtable. "Our goal is to cast a light on the broad benefits of expanded trade with Peru, and to urge the Senate to move forward to approve the agreement as soon as possible."

The Peru TPA will build on the results of the highly successful U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement. Since the U.S.-Chile FTA was implemented on January 1, 2004, U.S. exports to this region have increased by over $3 billion, now totaling $6.7 billion annually.

The state-by-state fact sheets are available at www.trade.businessroundtable.org.

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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 $110 billion in dividends to shareholders and the economy in 2005.

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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