U.S. Business Community Urges Congress and the Administration to Extend Trade Adjustment Assistance Program

Washington, DC – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC), in its role as a founding member of the Trade and American Competitiveness Coalition, and 17 other leading business associations sent a letter to President Obama and Congressional leadership, urging support for an extension of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which expired February 12, 2011.

The groups wrote:

“The Trade and American Competitiveness Coalition brings together U.S. business and agriculture enterprises who support domestic and international policies that will enhance U.S. competitiveness to promote economic growth and new jobs and prosperity for America’s workers, farmers, consumers, communities and businesses. The Coalition reaffirms American business’ long standing support for TAA as a central part of America’s overall trade agenda.

“TAA is as vitally important today as it has been over the years. It helps American businesses get into exporting and is designed to give displaced workers the new skills and resources they need to re-enter the 21st century job market. Accordingly, in addition to moving on the pending trade agreements and trade preferences, we urge Congress and the Administration to find a way forward to ensure that the United States has in place an effective TAA program to support U.S. global economic engagement.”

“An effective TAA program for the 21st century is essential to ensuring that U.S. workers impacted by trade have access to health care, job retraining and the skills necessary to re-enter the workforce. The program is an essential element of our trade policy and helps to promote U.S. competitiveness and prosperity,” said NFTC President Bill Reinsch. “We urge the Administration and Congress to make the U.S. trade agenda a priority and work together to renew TAA and other critical preference programs for eligible countries, as well as ratify the pending free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama, as soon as possible.”

To read the full text of the letter, please click here.

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About NFTC
Advancing Global Commerce for Nearly A Century- The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.
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U.S. Business Community Urges Congress and the Administration to Extend Trade Adjustment Assistance Program