Category: NFTC In the News
Business Leaders Want Normal Trade Relations With Russia
Push Continues To Normalize Trade Relations With Russia
U.S. Business Groups See Small Window For Russia Trade Bill Before Election
House Aims To Take Up Trade Bill In September
Business Groups Worry That Congress Will Leave Russia Trade Bill Hanging
Excerpt: Business groups supporting Russian trade legislation are increasingly worried Congress will leave for its five-week recess before completing the measure.
… “This is a mess and it is why the USA Engage and the National Foreign Trade Council are urging this Congress and this president to get their act together right now and enact Russia PNTR [permanent normal trade relations],” Dan O’Flaherty, NFTC’s vice president, wrote in a Monday blog post.
“Otherwise, American companies will not have the advantages that our negotiators have spent 19 years gaining for them in the Russian market,” he wrote.
… If a compromise is not found this week, business groups worry action could be delayed until a lame-duck session. Lawmakers are pressed for time this week and would have only eight legislative days in September to pass a bill.
“This puts it over to a lame-duck session, when all hell may be breaking loose over sequestration and the debt ceiling, among other undone things,” O’Flaherty wrote.
“And if not lame duck, then it’s next year when we will have a new Congress and possibly a new president and we will have to start all over again — as commercial opportunities in Russia are increasingly taken by our European and Asian competitors,” he concluded.
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/241155-business-worries-congress-will-leave-trade-bill-hanging
Senate Finance Unanimously Approves Bill to Normalize Trade with Russia
Excerpt: Senators cleared the first hurdle to extending permanent normal trade relations to Russia on Wednesday amid uncertainty about the chances of moving similar legislation through the House. … Another business group, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), supports the trade-relations bill but is still opposed to the Magnitsky language. The measure, “which addresses legitimate human-rights concerns, contains a number of problematic provisions that will unnecessarily complicate U.S.-Russia relations and create a new global unilateral sanction regime for the U.S. government to use against virtually any foreign person for vaguely defined reasons,” said NFTC President Bill Reinsch. http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/238715-senate-finance-unanimously-approves-russia-trade-bill-
Regulatory hurdles challenge U.S.-EU trade hopes
… A joint effort late in the administration of former President George W. Bush to eliminate European barriers to U.S. poultry exports flopped so badly that the United States in frustration filed a case against the EU at the World TradeOrganization. “What you’ve got is a deep-seated suspicion on each side that the other side can’t deliver,” said Bill Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents major U.S. exporters like Boeing, Caterpillar and Microsoft. Reinsch noted that the United States has disappointed the EU in recent talks on allowing foreign firms to bid on more U.S. state and local government contracts. “So there’s this extensive poking around to figure what can be delivered,” Reinsch said. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-usa-eu-trade-idUSBRE85H1C820120618
Mexico Joining Pacific Trade Talks Seen Aiding Canada’s Chances
Excerpt: … “With the inclusion of Mexico, U.S. businesses, workers, farmers and ranchers will have an opportunity to take full advantage of the economic benefits of a completed” agreement, the National Foreign Trade Council, a Washington-based business group, said in a statement.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-18/mexico-joining-pacific-trade-talks-seen-aiding-canada-s-chances.html
U.S. Companies Alarmed by Russia Sanctions Bill
Excerpt: American companies are worried that human-rights legislation being linked to a must-pass Russian trade bill could wind up sanctioning them and their business interests. On Tuesday, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and sister group USA Engage publicly came out against the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, which will be marked up in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday and is moving in the Senate. The groups said that, in addition to hurting U.S.-Russian relations, the bill would expose American companies to the risk of having their assets frozen.http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/1005-trade/231091-us-companies-alarmed-by-russia-sanctions-bill
