ITI PRESIDENT RHETT DAWSON PRAISES U.S.-KOREA TRADE AGREEMENT IN TESTIMONY BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION
06.20.2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ITI PRESIDENT RHETT DAWSON PRAISES
U.S.-KOREA TRADE AGREEMENT IN TESTIMONY BEFORE THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In testimony
before the International Trade Commission, Information Technology Industry
Council (ITI) President Rhett Dawson today praised the US-Korea Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) “an important agreement for the technology industry” and
urged swift passage in Congress.
“The agreement strengthens intellectual property rights and competition
policies to protect US exporters and investors,” Dawson said. “The
FTA lowers technical barriers to trade while increasing both US participation,
and transparency in the Korean regulatory process, technical standards development,
and conformity assessment procedures. Most importantly, a strong US-Korea
FTA sets strong precedent for future FTAs, strengthening US global competitiveness,
and creating a fair, level playing field for US exporters.”
The United States and Korean governments announced the conclusion of a U.S.-Korea
FTA on April 2, 2007. According to the Office of the United States Trade
Representative (USTR), the U.S.-Korea agreement will be the United States’ most
commercially significant FTA since NAFTA. Korea is the 7th largest goods
trading partner for the U.S. and a vital market for the high tech industry.
“ITI will continue to work to ensure that our companies have access
to free and fair trade,” Dawson testified. “ITI’s 41
member companies take in a combined $635 billion in annual U.S. revenue. With
60% of total revenues generated from sales overseas, it is imperative to the
high tech industry’s global competitiveness that our companies have access
to free and fair trade.”
ABOUT ITI
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) represents the nation's
leading high-tech companies and is widely recognized as the tech industry's
most effective lobbying organization in Washington. ITI helps member
companies achieve their policy objectives through building relationships with
Members of Congress, Administration officials, and foreign governments; organizing
industry-wide consensus on policy issues; and working to enact tech-friendly
government policies.
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ITI member companies include Accenture, Agilent Technologies, AMD, Apple, Applied Materials, Canon U.S.A., Cisco, ca, Corning, Dell, Eastman Kodak, eBay, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lenovo, Lexmark, Micron, Microsoft, Monster, National Semiconductor, NCR, Oracle, Panasonic, SAP, Sony Electronics, Sun Microsystems, Symbol Technologies, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Time Warner, Unisys, Verisign and Vonage.
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