2007-12-04 21:59:24 -

- The National Retail Federation today urged the Senate to pass legislation implementing a long-delayed free trade agreement with Peru.

"A vote for the Peru TPA bill is critical both for trade policy and foreign policy," NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said. "Rejecting this agreement would have important negative consequences for advancing U.S. foreign policy

and security goals to cement ties with important allies in the region, and would make it more difficult for the U.S. economy to grow and create new and better jobs in the global economy. A no vote is simply an endorsement of economic retreat and isolationism and for condemning poor countries to remain on the world's economic margins."

Pfister said the Peru FTA would promote economic growth in both Peru and the United States, increase opportunities for U.S. workers whose jobs already depend on the $7.4 billion in current trade between the two nations, and provide for reciprocal treatment of U.S. agriculture exports. It would also support democratic stability in Peru, an important ally in the region, and job creation there would provide an economic alternative that would help fight the narcotics trade.

Pfister's comments came in a letter to all members of the Senate. The Senate is scheduled to vote today on H.R. 3688, the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act, sponsored by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. The bill passed the House 285-132 on November 8.

Pfister said consideration of the bill would be counted as a key vote in NRF's annual ranking of lawmakers on issues important to the retail industry.

The Peru FTA was signed in April 2006, but implementation has been delayed because of political issues involving a number of similar pacts. The logjam was broken earlier this year when talks between House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., Republican congressional leaders and the White House led to an agreement to include labor, environmental and other standards both in the Peru pact and in pending agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

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

NRF
J. Craig Shearman, 202-626-8134
shearmanc@nrf.com