New Issue Advocacy Group Promotes Dialogue, Cooperation with U.S. Trade Partners
MINNEAPOLIS-(Business Wire)-September 7, 2009 - U.S. trade policy and the dialogue surrounding it must focus on cooperation rather than confrontation with trading partners in order to generate jobs and restore the nation’s economic health, says a new advocacy organization announcing its formation today in Minneapolis.
The Trade Alliance to Promote Prosperity is in the process of filing the necessary papers in Washington. Executive Director Patrick Rosenstiel said the group has already alerted more than 100 members of the U.S. House and Senate to the wide-ranging negative effects of a likely trade war with China should President Obama accept the Section 421 Petition (Trade Act of 1974) filed by the Steelworkers Union demanding a three-year tariff on low-cost tires imported from that nation.
“We are seeing tremendous interest in this issue on Capitol Hill, where members and staff are becoming increasingly aware of the implications of a trade war with China for the businesses, farms and working families they represent,” noted Rosenstiel.
“Same with advocacy groups such as the U.S. Chamber, National Farmers Union, the pork producers, the soybean producers, the auto manufacturers and alliances of high technology companies. Our mission is to educate America on the importance of global trade and cooperation, and encourage not only advocacy groups, but regular Americans to weigh in with their elected representatives.”
The President must decide the tire tariff question by September 17. Chinese officials have indicated they will retaliate strongly against U.S. farm commodities and manufactured goods if the tire tariffs are imposed.
“This issue involves much more than entry-level Chinese products that the U.S. tire industry decided to quit manufacturing more than ten years ago because they are terminally unprofitable. This is really about whether one Labor union president’s narrow protectionist agenda will be permitted to close down the world’s largest middle-class consumer market—350 million Chinese—to American farmers and American manufacturers and shut down America’s economic recovery with a trade war,” Rosenstiel said.
Rosenstiel, a national political communications consultant for more than 20 years, said he is particularly concerned with “ugly, unnecessary and insulting” verbal attacks on the Chinese by Steelworkers president Leo Gerard.
In particular, Rosenstiel cited an August 12 piece in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leo-w-gerard/speak-up-to-stop-unfair-t_b_258181.html) in which Gerard called the Chinese “world class bullies,” likened them to Nazis and termed them “modern slaveholders.”
“We understand Mr. Gerard has a job to do and that he’s legitimately concerned for American workers. But insulting one of America’s largest trading partners and overseas investors accomplishes nothing for America’s working families, the businesses that employ them or the farmers that feed them. Trade is critical to America’s economic future and we need to be discussing these issues intelligently, with solid information,” Rosenstiel said.
To that end, the organization’s new Web site (www.protecttrade.org) is inviting Americans with pro-trade views to post comments and sign an online petition to President Obama urging him to reject the Section 421 Petition. Signatures and messages will be faxed to the President and to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel every 48 hours through September 17.
“The President of the United States can not establish sound trade policy in a protectionist vacuum,” Rosenstiel said.
Rosenstiel emphasized that the China tariff issue is only the organization’s first initiative. “We are here for the long haul, to oppose every effort to limit free trade and close down economic opportunities for American workers, businesses and farmers,” he added.
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