Chamber Welcomes Forward Steps on FTAA

WASHINGTON, D.C. - United States Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue today made the following statement following the U.S. Trade Representative's proposal for proceeding with Free Trade Area of the Americas:

"The USTR's offer is an important step toward realizing a FTAA that will benefit businesses and their workers in the U.S. and throughout the hemisphere. We are particularly gratified with its reaffirmation of reciprocity as an underlying principle governing these negotiations. Moreover, this offer is important in that it should demonstrate to our partners in Latin America our seriousness about concluding a FTAA.

"The Chamber also welcomes USTR's reaffirmation of the need to mesh these important regional negotiations with the global trade negotiations launched in Doha in November 2001.

"The Chamber looks forward to working with the administration to bring back agreements that reduce tariff and non-tariff barriers on goods, services, and investment, strengthen intellectual property protection, liberalize government procurement rules, rein in trade-distorting subsidies, maintain appropriate and accessible safeguards and dispute settlement procedures, and generally open the doors to increased economic growth in the hemisphere and worldwide.

"After far too many years on the sidelines due to a lack of needed negotiating authority, we are encouraged that the leadership of the USTR is moving ahead with deliberate speed with the process of negotiating an FTAA with our trading partners in Latin America."

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.

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03-25