Business Roundtable Applauds Finance Committee for Action on U.S-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

Business Roundtable today applauded the Senate Finance Committee's action on the Peru trade promotion agreement (TPA) in making the trade pact a reality as its passage is a good first step in moving forward with all the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Korea.

The Peru TPA is a winner for the United States. Nearly 80 percent of U.S. companies and farms exporting to Peru are small-or medium-sized businesses with fewer than 500 employees. The PTPA will expand opportunities for these companies as barriers fall. Peruvian exports to the U.S. currently face few hurdles, while our exports to Peru encounter stiff barriers.

"The increase in U.S. exports is making the biggest contribution to our country's U.S. economic growth in 14 years," said John J. Castellani, president of Business Roundtable. "Moving closer to the passage of the Peru TPA is a key step in building on this new growth, but it's just the first. Congress must implement the other pending free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and Korea as soon as possible."

Castellani praised Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking Member Charles Grassley for their efforts to get the Peru pact to this point. He urged the continued bipartisan support in securing the passage of the remaining pending pacts with Korea, Colombia and Panama.

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Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $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 markets and represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid. Collectively, they returned $112 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 $90 billion in annual research and development spending - nearly half of the total private R&D spending in the U.S.

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