| February 12, 2007 | For Immediate Release |
Contact: Charlie Greenwald 703-284-5305 |
Arlington, VA – The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) today called upon Congress to renew the President’s Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) before it expires later this year.
“Access to foreign markets is the only way to ensure American companies and employees can compete on the global stage,” said ITAA Senior Vice President Joe Tasker. “Market access provides significant benefits to U.S. consumers. Unfortunately there will be no new trade agreements without trade promotion authority.”
TPA has been, and will continue to be an essential tool for the completion of the Doha round of the World Trade Organization talks, in which important IT services provisions are at stake. PTA is also necessary for completion of negotiations with Korea and Malaysia.
Tasker made the comments during a press conference to announce the new multi-industry TPA Coalition. Members of the coalition include associations, companies and other parties advocating an ambitious national economic competitiveness agenda.
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The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) provides global public policy, business networking, and national leadership to promote the continued rapid growth of the IT industry. ITAA consists of approximately 325 corporate members throughout the U.S., and is secretariat of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance, a global network of 67 countries' IT associations. The Association plays the leading role in issues of IT industry concern including information security, taxes and finance policy, digital intellectual property protection, telecommunications competition, workforce and education, immigration, online privacy and consumer protection, government IT procurement, human resources and e-commerce policy. ITAA members range from the smallest IT start-ups to industry leaders in the Internet, software, IT services, digital content, systems integration, telecommunications, and enterprise solution fields. For more information visit www.itaa.org.