Emergency Committee For American Trade

U.S. Business Community Urges Rejection of Job-Stalling "Buy American" Provisions

News Release January 27, 2010

For Immediate Release Contact: Marc Fricchione

202.659.5147

ECAT JOINS WITH U.S. CONSTRUCTION, ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING AND SERVICE GROUPS TO URGE REJECTION OF NEW JOB-STALLING “BUY AMERICAN” PROVISIONS

Urges Efforts to Open Markets to Our Exports

Washington, D.C., January 27, 2010: Calman J. Cohen, President of the Emergency Committee for American Trade (ECAT), issued the following statement on the release of a business letter from groups representing construction, engineering, manufacturing and service enterprises throughout the United States urging a rejection of harmful new “Buy American” provisions in any jobs legislation going forward.

“Today, ECAT, along with groups representing the wide swath of America’s major construction, engineering, manufacturing and services sectors, urged Congress to reject harmful new ‘Buy American’ provisions that will thwart our nation’s recovery.

“ECAT strongly supports Congress’ desire to get Americans back at work. Unfortunately, proposals to add new ‘Buy American’ provisions in the jobs bill will hamper America’s recovery by stifling the job creation this legislation is intended to produce and putting major U.S. export markets in jeopardy.

“The United States already has strong ‘Buy American’ provisions on the books. As the experience with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) demonstrates, however, proposed new ‘Buy American’ provisions are counterproductive to America’s recovery because they slow down projects so that American jobs do not get created and existing jobs are not preserved. These provisions also decrease competition and increase costs so that fewer projects go forward and fewer American workers go back to work.

“America’s consideration of these new proposals to close our market is also being watched closely by our major trading partners, some of which are considering or implementing their own restrictive procurement practices. These mirror-image actions by our trading partners will hurt our nation’s exporters and the jobs that they could be creating here in the United States. In some cases, American enterprises and workers stand to lose major business opportunities that they have secured year-after-year in foreign markets as other countries seek to implement their own ‘buy national’ policies.

“ECAT strongly urges Congress to not include ‘Buy American’ provisions in any new jobs legislation and focus on measures that will actually stimulate job growth quickly for America’s workers, such as opening new export markets for American goods and services.”

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Founded in 1967, ECAT is an organization of the heads of leading U.S. international business enterprises representing all major sectors of the American economy. Their annual worldwide sales exceed $2.7 trillion and they employ more than 6.4 million persons. ECAT’s purpose is to promote economic growth through the expansion of international trade and investment.

Attached Document(s): 01-27-10 ECAT Urges Rejection of Job-Stalling Buy American Provisions.pdf
01-27-10 Joint Business Letter to Congress Opposing Buy American Proposals.pdf