FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 25, 2007

TIA Urges Congress to Approve Free Trade Agreements

Markup, Speaker's support are key steps to reducing U.S. trade imbalance in tech and telecom.

Arlington, Va. - The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.), thanking her for supporting the Panama and Peru Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and urging her support for the Korea pact in light of a recently-published report on its benefits. TIA also commends the House Ways and Means Committee for approval of the U.S.-Peru FTA, moving the trade pact one step closer to ratification.

In its letter, TIA notes that Speaker Pelosi's state of California is home to 100 of its member companies that employ over 250,000 employees in the United States and generate revenues exceeding $172 billion annually. U.S. information and communication technology (ICT) companies are increasingly looking for new opportunities in foreign markets, where TIA predicts ICT revenues will grow by nearly 10 percent annually through 2010. The South Korean ICT market alone is valued at over $38 billion, and last week, the U.S. International Trade Commission issued a report pointing to immense benefits of the U.S.-Korea FTA, including for U.S. ICT providers, with negligible or nonexistent drawbacks.

TIA also applauds the House Ways and Means Committee for its approval of draft implementing language of the U.S-Peru FTA. The Committee approval follows the Senate Finance Committee, which approved the FTA with overwhelming bipartisan support last week. Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) called the FTA "a new direction for American trade policy." As a result of these Committee votes, the White House can now formally submit the trade bill to Congress, which has 90 days to vote for or against the agreement.

TIA is encouraged by the leadership of Congress and urges leadership in both houses to pass all four important FTAs to help the United States compete in a rapidly-changing ICT economy.

For more information about pending free trade agreements, please contact Ian Martinez at 703.907.7723 or imartinez@tiaonline.org.

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About TIA
For more than two decades, TIA has leveraged its global resources to create the best possible business environment within which our 500+ members can research, develop, manufacture, market and sell their products and services worldwide. The association accomplishes this through its expertise in standards, advocacy, business development, market intelligence, environmental compliance and information security.
TIA is committed to expanding market opportunities while protecting and enhancing the reputation of the global communications industry with all its stakeholders . For more information, go to http://www.tiaonline.org.