Business leaders lobby Senate for free-trade deal

Business leaders from around the country lobbied the Senate May 1 for the passage of a free-trade agreement, the Trade Promotion Authority, which has been dormant for the past eight years, according to a release from the National Association of Manufacturers.

The House of Representatives approved the TPA about five months ago and NAM Chairman Arthur "Don" Wainright urged the Senate to do the same. He said that small- and medium-sized businesses would benefit the most from new free trade agreements.

According to an April statement from President Bush to the Department of State, the TPA gives the executive branch the right to negotiate trade agreements and gives Congress the final authority to approve them.

"It's important to have a platform for trade; and TPA provides that," Bush said. "Our two major trade agreements, NAFTA and the Uruguay Round, have improved the average standard of living for Americans. In eight years since the TPA expired, we have missed a lot of opportunity in America. And when you miss opportunity, it tends to affect the average worker in our country."

Bush said that the Senate should pass the pending legislation without delay, so America's entrepreneurs and workers could have "a fair shot at the markets of the world." He added that more than 150 trade agreements exist throughout the world, but the United States is party to just three.

"If foreign trade barriers were cut, many of us could dramatically increase our reach into new markets," said Wainright, who owns a Washington, D.C.-based company that manufactures parts for the auto and aerospace industries. It employs 200.

"Like many small manufacturers, we don't do a lot of direct exporting, but our parts go into a lot of bigger products that are sold abroad," Wainright told Congress. "We have a definite stake in TPA. If the U.S. had agreements like NAFTA with other nations, the possibilities for our growth would be limited only by our initiative."