| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Andre Carter |
| April 9, 2007 |
(202) 312-1084 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Business Roundtable, an association
of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, announced
its support for the U.S. Trade Representative's filing of
two new World Trade Organization cases against China addressing
intellectual property and market access.
Intellectual property theft in China is a widespread
problem and demands attention. Failure to provide adequate
and effective intellectual property protection undermines
innovation in the U.S. and China, leads to health and
safety risks for U.S. and Chinese consumers and hurts
confidence among the American public about the fairness of
trade policies.
Business Roundtable is a longtime supporter
of the WTO, and believes that when China or any other major
trading partner does not abide by its WTO obligations, the
United States should pursue the non-compliance aggressively.
"Liberalized trade based on a framework of
rules has helped spur economic growth and innovation in the
United States and around the world for 60 years," said John
J. Castellani, President of Business Roundtable. "This is
what the WTO is for, and we support Ambassador Susan Schwab
in her efforts to use the WTO to enforce the trade rules to
which both nations agreed."
# # #
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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