| February 12, 2007 | For Immediate Release |
Contact: J. Craig Shearman (202) 626-8134 |
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 12, 2007 — The National Retail Federation today urged Congress to approve legislation renewing presidential Trade Promotion Authority, saying TPA is essential to the United States’ participation in the World Trade Organization’s Doha Round of trade negotiations.
“Negotiators are now getting back to work on the Doha Round talks, but there’s no guarantee that work will be finished by the time TPA expires this summer,” NRF Vice President and International Trade Counsel Erik Autor said. “TPA is essential to ensure that the President can work with Congress in setting objectives and negotiating trade agreements, without those agreements being picked apart during the legislative process. No country will agree to negotiate a trade agreement with the United States only to undertake a second negotiation with 535 members of Congress. Agreements that affect global trade have too big an impact on the U.S. economy for us to allow ourselves to be put on the sidelines by letting TPA expire.”
“TPA is important to retailers because we rely on goods from around the world to stock our shelves and provide American working families with daily necessities,” Autor said. “Retailers’ ability to conduct commerce free of trade barriers is essential not only to the health and growth of our industry but the ability of consumers to buy the products they need at prices they can afford.”
NRF has actively pushed for approval of a new global trade agreement under the Doha Round, and has led retail delegations to WTO headquarters in Geneva and to ministerial conferences in Cancun and Hong Kong. Among other goals, NRF has sought the substantial reduction and eventual elimination of all tariffs on consumer goods and processed food. NRF has also pushed for increased market access to allow the opening of retail operations in foreign markets, fairer rules governing the use of trade remedies procedures, better enforcement of trade-related intellectual property rights and simplification of worldwide customs procedures. Last month, NRF and other members of the Forum for International Retail Association Executives, which met at NRF’s annual convention in New York, called on WTO nations to redouble their efforts to revive Doha Round talks.
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The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2006 sales of $4.7 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.