Business Roundtable Commends Ways & Means Committee for Endorsing the U.S-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement

Business Roundtable today applauded the House Ways & Means Committee for giving its stamp of approval to the Peru trade promotion agreement (TPA). The committee's bipartisan efforts, in conjunction with the Senate Finance Committee's action last week, helps keep the nation's trade agenda at the forefront and will help build momentum for not only Peru, but the other agreements pending with Colombia, Panama and Korea.

"I cannot overstate the importance of bipartisanship when it comes to trade policy," said John J. Castellani, president of Business Roundtable. "Today's vote shows our friends in Latin America that Washington will stand with them as they undertake economic and political reforms."

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.

Castellani praised Committee Chairman Charles Rangel and Ranking Member Jim McCrery 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 Colombia, Panama and Korea.

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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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