Business Roundtable Deeply Disappointed By Doha Talks Suspension

Washington, D.C. - Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs of leading U.S. companies, expressed deep disappointment in today's suspension of the Doha Round multilateral trade negotiations. The Roundtable has consistently supported an expansion of international trade and investment opportunities as a way to ensure continued U.S. economic growth - and views the Doha Round as critical to worldwide economic growth.

"Today's decision to suspend the Doha negotiations is an unfortunate fact," said John J. Castellani, President of Business Roundtable. "The stalled negotiations are a direct consequence of the unwillingness of key players to show the flexibility needed.

"The Roundtable commends Ambassador Schwab and her team for their commitment to opening markets and to an ambitious and comprehensive Doha Round result. We remain committed to the Round and to multilateral trade liberalization. We will fully support re-energizing discussions at the appropriate time in the future to open up markets and further liberalize worldwide trade.

"During the latest talks, U.S. negotiators repeatedly indicated their willingness to improve the U.S. offer on agricultural domestic support if others reciprocated by making significantly improved market access offers. In yesterday's G6 meeting between the EU, Japan, India, Brazil, Australia and the U.S., key players did not show such movement and chose instead to surrender to protectionist pressures and keep their agriculture markets closed. Key areas of industrial market access and services liberalization were not even discussed."

Business Roundtable has aggressively supported an ambitious and comprehensive Doha trade deal. Such an agreement would bring major economic gains to U.S. companies, consumers, farmers and workers, and would benefit developed and developing countries alike.

"To keep the promise of Doha, the negotiations must lead to improved market access in all of the key areas under negotiation - industrial market access, agriculture and services," Castellani concluded. "Business Roundtable continues to support U.S. efforts to bring the Doha Round to a successful conclusion but refuses to support a result that misses the mark and does not provide significant market access improvements in all of the key areas under negotiation."

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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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