Business Roundtable Hails Senate Approval of U.S.-Oman FTA

Successful Senate Vote and House Ways and Means Markup Provide Critical Momentum

Washington, D.C. - Business Roundtable strongly embraced today's U.S. Senate approval of the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Business Roundtable, an association of 160 chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with over $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees, recognizes the significant strategic and economic opportunities the U.S.-Oman FTA offers.

"Both Majority Leader Frist and Minority Leader Reid deserve great praise for their swift action shepherding this important trade agreement through the Senate," said John J. Castellani, President, Business Roundtable. "Today's approval takes a strong step toward both implementation of the agreement and achieving the broader objective of advancing market-oriented economic reform in the Middle East."

Under the terms of the agreement, all bilateral trade in consumer and industrial products will immediately become duty-free. "The U.S.-Oman FTA will not only provide considerable new business opportunities for American companies, it will also demonstrate to other Middle Eastern nations the economic benefits of trade liberalization and demonstrate the United States' commitment to the region," Castellani continued.

With today's Senate passage and a successful House Committee on Ways and Means markup, the next step toward final Congressional approval is consideration of the agreement by the full House of Representatives. "It is of paramount importance that the House follow suit and act quickly to approve this important trade agreement," Castellani concluded.

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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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