Business Roundtable Chairman Statement on Potsdam Negotiations

WASHINGTON, DC - Harold McGraw III, Chairman, President and CEO of The McGraw-Hill Companies and Chairman of Business Roundtable issued the following statement on the abrupt end of the Doha Round negotiations in Potsdam, Germany:

"Business Roundtable continues to have hope for the Doha Round, but we are deeply disappointed and concerned that the Potsdam negotiations failed.

"We continue to believe that a comprehensive Doha agreement covering agriculture, manufacturing and services is essential to global economic growth for developed and developing countries alike.

"Developments in Potsdam do not in any way shake our commitments to the Doha negotiations and the WTO. The difficulty of bringing the Doha Round to a successful conclusion highlights the importance for the US to have a multifaceted trade negotiating strategy. We need to pursue multilateral, regional and bilateral initiatives to promote economic growth through international trade, investment and regulatory reform.

"Knowing that more than 31 million U.S. jobs are dependent upon global trade, our CEOs remain committed to the Doha negotiation and stand ready to assist in getting the negotiations back on track. We will continue to work with the Congress and USTR for a comprehensive and ambitious Round and the development of a wining trade strategy for U.S. companies, farmers and workers, which will require a new TPA."

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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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