Business Roundtable Leads Advocacy Effort to Urge Progress on Doha Round

USTR Portman Applauds Launch of American Business Coalition for Doha

Washington, D.C. - Today's launch of the American Business Coalition for Doha (ABCDoha) was hailed by Business Roundtable, representing CEOs of America's leading companies, as a clear indicator of the importance of an ambitious Doha Round to American business, agriculture, workers and consumers.

"The primary goal of the business community is to support actions that will help grow the economy, and that's what the Doha Round is all about," said John J. Castellani, President of Business Roundtable, in his remarks at the launch event. "A successful Round promises to promote worldwide economic growth, which is an opportunity we cannot afford to pass up."

Business Roundtable is serving as the secretariat of ABCDoha coalition, which includes leading U.S. trade associations from all sectors of the economy - including agriculture, manufacturing, and services - and represents large and small businesses from across the nation. "The Doha negotiations are now at a critical stage," Castellani continued. "We've witnessed real momentum in the past two weeks - largely due to the bold U.S. proposal on agriculture. U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman deserves significant credit for reenergizing the negotiations. Now it's time for other nations to step up."

In addition to agriculture, Business Roundtable and ABCDoha are urging WTO negotiators to redouble efforts in non-agriculture market access, trade in services and trade facilitation.

"ABCDoha and its members will work with USTR in support of a comprehensive and ambitious agreement as we move forward toward the critical Hong Kong Ministerial meeting," said Castellani. "The clock is ticking, and the job must get done."

Business Roundtable also announced that its interactive Trade Resource Center, www.trade.businessroundtable.org, has launched a new feature specifically designed to show how each U.S. state benefits from world trade. The new interactive map allows for quick collection of key trade data simply by scrolling over a selected state.

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Business Roundtable (www.businessroundtable.org) is an association of chief executive officers of leading corporations with a combined workforce of more than 10 million employees and $4 trillion in annual revenues. The chief executives are committed to advocating public policies that foster vigorous economic growth, a dynamic global economy, and a well-trained and productive U.S. workforce essential for future competitivenes

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