U.S. Chamber Runs Radio Ads Urging Action on TPA

- WTO Doha Meetings Highlight Need for Negotiating Authority

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Chamber of Commerce began a broad campaign to urge congress to pass Trade Promotion Authority for President Bush by running a series of Spanish- and English-language radio ads in selected areas.

"U.S. Lawmakers must un-tie the hands of our own trade negotiators, as the World Trade Organization meetings begin this week in Doha, Qatar," said Greg Lebedev, Chamber chief operating officer and executive vice president for International Affairs and National Security. "A vote for TPA is a vote for American small businesses and their workers."

Exports support 12 million U.S. jobs – one-in-five manufacturing jobs – and account for almost one-third of real U.S. economic growth over the past decade. One-in-three acres of U.S. farmland are planted with crops for export.

Without Trade Promotion Authority, the U.S. will become dangerously disadvantaged as our foreign competitors negotiate a web of agreements that exclude the United States. Of the more than 130 bilateral and regional free trade agreements in force today, only three include the United States. The Chamber will be represented at the November World Trade Organization Ministerial meetings in Doha, Qatar, by the Chamber's vice president for international policy and programs.

The Chamber has focused attention and built support for passage of TPA – which Congress has granted to every President since 1974 – through a variety of efforts, including lobbying, grassroots and grasstops activity, trade education events, plant tours, issue ads and broad-based communication efforts.

"The Chamber will continue to mobilize its nation-wide federation network to educate lawmakers, challenge the nay-sayers and tell the true story about trade," said Lebedev. "We will send a message to Congress, to the public, and to our foreign competitors – American companies, workers and farms will compete and win in the global economy, if Trade Promotion Authority is passed."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /># # #

01-183