Emergency Committee For American Trade - Publications

SECTION I.1: IMPORTANCE OF TRADE AND INVESTMENT AND ECAT’S ROLE

ECAT and its member companies recognize that trade and investment are critical components of a healthy world economy. ECAT’s mission, since its formation in 1967, has been therefore to promote economic growth through the expansion of international trade and investment. This section provides an overview of the importance of trade and investment to the U.S. and global economies and of the role that ECAT and its member companies play in the promotion of liberalized trade and investment.

Why International Trade and Investment Are Important

Trade and investment liberalization are essential elements in the economic growth and improvements in the standard of living enjoyed in the United States and throughout the global economy. The United States remains the world’s largest trading nation, accounting for approximately:

24 percent of world goods trade in 2006, as the world’s second: largest exporter and the world’s largest importer of goods; and
26 percent of world services trade in 2006, as both the world’s largest: exporter and importer of services.

Source: World Trade Organization, International Trade Statistics 2006

As a share of the U.S. economy, U.S. trade and investment have grown from 13 percent of GDP in 1970 to over 25 percent of GPD in 2006.

In 2006, U.S. goods exports increased $133 billion to $1.037 trillion and U.S. goods imports rose $184 billion to $1.855 trillion. U.S. services exports rose $32.5 billion to nearly $360.5 billion and U.S. services imports rose $23.4 billion to nearly $280.6 billion.

Liberalized trade and investment have helped spur the significant growth in U.S. exports, which, in turn, are important to spurring growth and a higher standard of living in the United States. Exports support one in six U.S. manufacturing jobs. Consider the following growth in U.S. goods exports to its major FTA partners after the entry-into-force of the agreements.

U.S. goods exports to the NAFTA countries more than doubled between 1993: and 2006, from $142 billion to $364 billion, growing faster than U.S. exports to the rest of the world.
U.S. goods exports to Chile increased by more than 150 percent between 2003: and 2006, increasing from $2.7 billion to $6.8 billion in just three years.
U.S. goods exports to Singapore increased by nearly 50 percent, from $16.6: billion in 2003 to $24.7 billion in 2006.
U.S. goods exports to Australia increased almost 25 percent, from $14.3 billion: in 2004 to $17.8 billion in 2006.

Overall, U.S. exports to FTA partners have grown 20 percent, a faster rate of increase than for overall U.S. exports.

The benefits of imports to the U.S. economy are also widely enjoyed, but not always recognized.

Imports increase the variety and availability of products accessible to consumers throughout the United States, providing Americans with improved choices, such as seasonal fruits and vegetables now increasingly available all year, a wider variety of consumer products, and access to products not produced in significant quantities in the United States, such as our morning cup of coffee.

U.S. consumers and the economy as a whole also benefit from the lower prices and, therefore, greater purchasing power, that increased international competition promotes. This has enabled, for example, 73.4 percent of households to own a personal computer.

Imports support millions of American jobs in the transportation, wholesale distribution, retail, marketing and other sectors, while also supporting American manufacturing jobs by allowing use of lower-priced inputs.

For many companies, imports of key inputs improve their competitiveness in the global economy.

The impact of imports on prices also plays an important role in dampening inflationary pressures and, in turn, keeping interest rates low.

Global flows of foreign direct investment also have been an increasingly important source of worldwide economic growth and integration. The International Monetary Fund estimates that since 1970 global capital flows as a percentage of GDP have increased almost tenfold for advanced economies and more than fivefold for developing economies. Such outflows, as well as foreign investment inflows into the United States, are critically important drivers of economic growth and productivity. U.S. foreign direct investment outflows also generate substantial U.S. exports; indeed, the largest market for U.S. exports is foreign-based subsidiaries of U.S. companies, as discussed in greater depth in section III.2.

Current U.S. proposals in the WTO on trade liberalization of nonagricultural goods could raise the level of U.S. GDP by $144 billion a year, equal to an additional $2,000 or more for the average family of four. According to economic analyses by the Office of the United States Trade Representative, NAFTA and the WTO Uruguay Round Agreements combined have increased U.S. national income by $40 billion to $60 billion a year. Combined with the lower prices that the reduction in import barriers provides, the income gain for American families equals $1,000 to $1,300 a year from these two agreements.

In assessing the importance of trade and investment, it is also important to consider that:

96 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States.
One in three acres in the United States is planted for export.
27 percent of farm income is linked to exports.
Approximately 43 percent of all U.S. manufactured products are exported abroad and workers in those jobs are paid 13-to-18 percent more than the average wage in the overall U.S. economy.

Trade and Jobs
Contrary to much speculation, increasing trade deficits do not cost U.S. jobs. U.S. unemployment has fallen significantly from 7.5 percent in 1992, while trade deficits over the last decade grew by nearly 300 percent. As the United States undertook significant trade liberalization through the NAFTA and the Uruguay Round, total U.S. employment grew by 22 million jobs between 1990 and 2000, and U.S. average per capita real income rose by 26 percent over the same period. .
As explained in the 2006 Economic Report of the President:

Job growth in America is driven largely by demographics – population growth and choices about labor-force participation – and macroeconomic policies that affect, in particular, the business cycle. . . Statistics show in layoffs of 50 or more people between 1996 and 2004 less than 3 percent were attributable to import competition or overseas relocation.

As further explained in the 2005 Economic Report of the President:

According to standard economic theory, the degree to which an economy is open to trade affects the mix of jobs within an economy and may cause dislocations in certain areas or industries, but has little impact on the overall level of employment. . . . . Trade tends to lead a country to specialize in producing goods and services at which it excels. Trade affects the mix of jobs because workers and capital would be expected to shift away from sectors in which they are less productive compared to foreign producers and toward existing and new sectors.

Trade and Wages
Nor has trade reduced wages. Since 1994, the real hourly wages for workers rose 38.4 percent, while prices (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)) rose at a slower rate of 27.1 percent
A Congressional Research Service report concluded:
[T]here is likely little causality running from a rising level of trade to poor domestic wage performance. Slow average wage growth is fully and credibly linked to poor productivity growth. A small share of rising wage inequality can be linked to trade, but the great bulk of this trend is probably more soundly rooted in a rising relative demand for skill, growing out of a changed pattern of technological change.
Craig K. Elwell, Is Globalization the Force Behind Poor U.S. Wage Performance?: An Analysis, Congressional Research Service, Short Report for Congress, Updated January 12, 2001.

As further documented in ECAT’s Global Investments, American Returns (GIAR), global integration has strengthened the U.S. economy by generating new U.S. economic activity here at home for American companies and their workers in the form of expanded research and development, capital investments, purchases of inputs and services, and exports, as well as better, higher-paying U.S. jobs. The fact is that American companies with global operations are generally able to make greater contributions to U.S. economic growth than purely domestic firms because of the opportunities provided by their participation in world markets.

ECAT’s GIAR study and the 1999 Update also demonstrate that the foreign direct investment of American companies has complemented, than substituted for, economic activity in the United States in areas determinative of productivity, such as research and development and capital investments. In addition, over 70 percent of the total income earned by the foreign affiliates of U.S. firms is repatriated. This in turn has promoted economic growth and a higher standard of living in the United States. While job dislocations have occurred in the process of global integration, they have not weakened the U.S. economy. Over the past two decades, as American firms have sought opportunities in global markets, they have maintained some three-quarters of their total employment in the United States. At the same time, the foreign affiliates of American firms are an important market for American companies with global operations, accounting for over 40 percent of U.S. exports. Furthermore, the output of the foreign affiliates of American companies is not flooding U.S. markets; over 90 percent of their exports are sold outside of the United States.

Trade and Jobs

Contrary to much speculation, increasing trade deficits do not cost U.S. jobs. U.S. unemployment has fallen significantly from 7.5 percent in 1992, while trade deficits over the last decade grew by nearly 300 percent. As the United States undertook significant trade liberalization through the NAFTA and the Uruguay Round, total U.S. employment grew by 22 million jobs between 1990 and 2000, and U.S. average per capita real income rose by 26 percent over the same period.

As explained in the 2006 Economic Report of the President:: Job growth in America is driven largely by demographics – population growth and choices about labor-force participation – and macroeconomic policies that affect, in particular, the business cycle. . . Statistics show in layoffs of 50 or more people between 1996 and 2004 less than 3 percent were attributable to import competition or overseas relocation.
As further explained in the 2005 Economic Report of the President:: According to standard economic theory, the degree to which an economy is open to trade affects the mix of jobs within an economy and may cause dislocations in certain areas or industries, but has little impact on the overall level of employment. . . . . Trade tends to lead a country to specialize in producing goods and services at which it excels. Trade affects the mix of jobs because workers and capital would be expected to shift away from sectors in which they are less productive compared to foreign producers and toward existing and new sectors.

Trade and Wages

Nor has trade reduced wages. Since 1994, the real hourly wages for workers rose 38.4 percent, while prices (as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI)) rose at a slower rate of 27.1 percent

A Congressional Research Service report concluded:

[T]here is likely little causality running from a rising level of trade to poor domestic wage performance. Slow average wage growth is fully and credibly linked to poor productivity growth. A small share of rising wage inequality can be linked to trade, but the great bulk of this trend is probably more soundly rooted in a rising relative demand for skill, growing out of a changed pattern of technological change.

Craig K. Elwell, Is Globalization the Force Behind Poor U.S. Wage Performance?: An Analysis, Congressional Research Service, Short Report for Congress, Updated January 12, 2001.

In January 2003, ECAT released Mainstay IV: Technology, Trade and Investment: The Public Opinion Disconnect. This study documents that trade and investment are critical components supporting the growth in productivity and the increase in U.S. living standards that the United States has enjoyed over the last decade. This study examines in particular the relationship between trade and investment and the growth in the production and in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) products that have together accounted for about two-thirds of the acceleration in U.S. labor productivity over the last decade. This acceleration has been much celebrated, as labor productivity is the single best measure of a country’s overall standard of living. The faster growth rate of recent years implies that U.S. living standards now double in only 28 years – a generation faster than with the previous growth rate.

The key conclusion of Mainstay IV is that trade and investment play a critical role in fostering the growth of and the demand for ICT in ways that support increased productivity and economic growth. Yet there is a disconnect in public opinion that needs to be addressed. Americans strongly embrace technological progress, even if it results in job loss, while, at the same time, they are apprehensive over the trade and investment liberalization that helps make such technological progress possible. The study recommends:

Action by policy makers and business leaders to articulate the essential: role of trade and investment in the production and use of new technologies.
The promotion of expansionary trade and investment policies, including new: trade- and investment-liberalizing agreements and policies that promote and protect U.S. investment abroad.
The promotion of further trade and investment liberalization in the technology sector.
Bipartisan reform and modernization of the adjustment assistance programs.

It is also important to note that the global integration of the U.S. and other economies is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, the world achieved a relatively high degree of global integration during the period from the late 1800s to World War I. That integration was reversed, however, as a result of political conflicts and the enactment of shortsighted protectionist trade policies, such as the prohibitively high Smoot-Hawley tariffs in the Tariff Act of 1930 that presaged the great U.S. depression. Much of the last half of the 20th century, then, was an effort to regain the level of integration that had been achieved by World War I. It was only in the early 1980s that the world was able to exceed the level of economic integration achieved in that earlier period.

ECAT’s Activities to Promote Greater Trade and Investment

Since its formation in October, 1967, ECAT has played a leading role in promoting trade and investment liberalization, promoting strong protections for international investment and opposing protectionist efforts to restrict trade. Throughout 2006 and into 2007, ECAT has been active on the full spectrum of trade and investment issues, including the following:

Trade and Investment Negotiations. Building upon its prior work, ECAT has actively continued its efforts to promote concrete trade and investment liberalization through the negotiation and implementation of regional, sub-regional and bilateral free trade agreements, as well as the global negotiations undertaken as part of the Doha Development Agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO). ECAT has been active on several different fronts in promoting this agenda:

Doha Development Agenda: Despite the suspension of the Doha Development: Agenda (DDA) negotiations in mid-2006, ECAT has and continues to work actively with the Administration, Congressional leaders, the broader business community and foreign governments and industry in support of efforts to promote concrete progress in these global negotiations undertaken by the WTO. Following up on its work during the Hong Kong WTO Ministerial in late 2005, ECAT has continued meetings with U.S. and foreign delegations and is helping to spearhead work by the broader U.S. business community to help promote a breakthrough in the negotiating stance of key countries.
Russia’s WTO Accession: ECAT continued efforts with key Administration: officials to promote concrete progress on WTO accession negotiations, supporting company efforts to promote improved commitments in agriculture, goods, services, intellectual property and encryption, among other issues. In November 2006 the United States announced the conclusion of a strong market-opening bilateral package with Russia that made marked progress on all the above-mentioned key issues. The multilateral negotiations will continue in 2007. ECAT also played a leadership role in helping to educate Congress on the importance of the Russian market and lay the groundwork for Congressional authorization of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia as early as 2007.
Vietnam’s WTO Accession. ECAT supported the conclusion of a market-opening: bilateral WTO package with Vietnam and its entry into the WTO, as its 150th member. ECAT actively worked for Congressional authorization of PNTR with Vietnam, which is necessary to ensure that U.S. companies get the full benefit of Vietnam’s market-opening commitments. Congress passed the PNTR authorization legislation during the final hours of the lame-duck session in December, 2006.
Free Trade Agreements (FTAs): ECAT continued to work extensively to support the: negotiation of trade- and investment-liberalizing FTAs and Trade Promotion Agreements (TPAs) with the highest standards possible on investment, intellectual property, government procurement and transparency.; Oman FTA. ECAT helped lead business community efforts that resulted in Congressional approval of the Oman FTA last year, which is now awaiting Oman’s full implementation. In addition to its active lobbying on Capitol Hill, ECAT provided critical expertise and prepared numerous papers, letters and other documents on such key issues as labor and foreign investment rights in the United States.; Peru, Colombia and Panama Trade Promotion Agreements. ECAT worked in support of high-standard and comprehensive bilateral agreements that were successfully concluded with Peru in 2005, with Colombia in 2006 and with Panama in 2007. ECAT played a leadership role in promoting a strong market-access package with Colombia in particular that helped lead to the successful conclusion of the negotiations. In 2007, ECAT is working to support Congressional consideration and approval of the U.S.-Peru, U.S.-Colombia and U.S.-Panama Trade Promotion Agreements.; Korea FTA. ECAT supported the launch of FTA negotiations with Korea and worked extensively in support of a strong, comprehensive agreement, providing detailed comments to the Administration on every major aspect of the negotiations, based on consultations with ECAT companies. ECAT also testified before Congress as the negotiations were being concluded. ECAT played a leadership role in promoting strong investment protections that were ultimately included in the agreement reached by the two countries on April 1, 2007.; Malaysia FTA negotiations. ECAT supported the launch of FTA negotiations with Malaysia and provided detailed comments on ECAT priorities on every major aspect of the negotiations, based on consultations with ECAT companies. ECAT also coordinated the advice and priorities for the broader business community with respect to the Malaysia FTA negotiations, as part of its active participation in the broader business community coalition on the Malaysia FTA,; Other FTA Negotiations. ECAT continues to monitor the status of several negotiations that are currently on hold, including with the United Arab Emirates, Ecuador, the Southern African Customs Union and the Americas.
Investment Negotiations: ECAT worked actively to promote strong and: high-standard bilateral investment treaties (BITs), along with strong investment chapters in trade-agreement negotiations, particularly with Colombia, Panama, Korea, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. With Uruguay, ECAT worked with U.S. negotiators to promote the conclusion of a strong agreement that included key language protecting infrastructure and resource investments, capital transfers and other key issues. ECAT helped launch the Uruguay BIT – the first BIT the United States has ratified since 1999 – which entered into force in November 2006. With U.S.-Pakistani BIT negotiations, ECAT continued to promote the inclusion of high standards and key language ensuring that existing and future investments and investment agreements are fully protected. ECAT also worked to promote greater interest within the Administration of BITs with such key countries as India, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. ECAT also provided comments to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on its policy framework to support investment reform within developing countries.
Implementation of the U.S.-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade: Agreement (CAFTA): ECAT built upon its leadership of business community efforts from 2003 onward in promoting the negotiation and subsequent Congressional approval of a comprehensive and commercially meaningful free trade agreement (FTA) with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Following U.S. approval and implementation of the agreement in 2005, ECAT has focused its work on the Administration, the other CAFTA governments and industry to support strong and full implementation of CAFTA in each of the countries that has ratified the agreement. In particular, ECAT has provided advice and support to promote full implementation on such key areas as intellectual property, distribution, services and investment with the five countries that have ratified the agreement. ECAT has also worked to support Costa Rica’s efforts to ratify CAFTA, with ratification expected in 2007. ECAT also launched a CAFTA implementation project with a diverse group of companies that are working to support continued efforts at implementation, following CAFTA’s entry-into-force with El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
Intellectual Property. With respect to intellectual property (IP), ECAT worked: extensively to support the negotiation of strong commitments in new agreements and the implementation of IP commitments in existing agreements. Covering IP issues of importance to the information technology, publishing, consumer products and pharmaceutical industries, ECAT played an active role in promoting IP protections in negotiations on Russia’s WTO accession, TPAs with Peru, Colombia and Panama, the FTA with Korea, FTA negotiations with Malaysia, and the implementation of FTAs, particularly CAFTA.

China. ECAT also worked extensively in support of greater Congressional understanding of the complexity of the U.S.-China economic relationship, laboring to prevent Congressional adoption of several counter-productive pieces of China legislation. Most notably, ECAT worked with other members of the business community to defeat S. 295, which sought to force China to adopt a market-based currency valuation within six months, subject to the threat of a 27.5 percent tariff on all U.S. imports from China. In addition to setting up and participating in dozens of Congressional meetings, ECAT prepared key policy papers relating to S. 295 and China issues more broadly to help prevent growing concern over U.S.-China trade relations from bubbling into counterproductive legislation.

Throughout the year, ECAT also worked to help support progress in key aspects of the U.S.-China trading relationship, particularly with regard to China’s implementation of its WTO commitments in the areas of government procurement and intellectual property. With respect to government procurement, China has now agreed to begin negotiations to join the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement and to submit its offer of coverage no later than December 2007.

Foreign Investment Issues. In addition to its work in support of strong investment agreements with other countries, ECAT was at the forefront of business community efforts to ensure that any changes to the system for national security reviews of foreign investment in the United States (administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)) would not undermine U.S. investment at home or abroad. From the inception of controversy surrounding the acquisition of U.S. port terminals by Dubai Ports World, ECAT worked extensively with Congress and the Administration to explain the benefits and interrelationships of investment by foreign companies in the United States and U.S. companies abroad. ECAT worked to educate Members of Congress through visits, letters, policy papers and testimony. ECAT also coordinated the broader business community’s set of principles for the reform of CFIUS, which provided a useful benchmark as the House and Senate reviewed and passed legislation. Final legislation has not been enacted.

Government Procurement. ECAT continued its work, as the secretariat to the International Government Procurement Coalition, to promote improvements worldwide on procurement activities. Much of this year’s focus was on promoting China’s adoption of WTO procurement principles, which culminated in the announcement by China at the April meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade that it would begin negotiations to join the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement. In addition, ECAT coordinated the broader business community’s efforts to reverse Vietnam’s discriminatory software procurement policies that were announced in July 2006; that work continues. ECAT and the broader coalition also monitored progress on the work of the WTO to simplify the GPA and pressed for strong government procurement commitments in FTAs.

Enhancing U.S. Competitiveness and Liberalizing the U.S. Market. ECAT continues work in several areas to promote greater liberalization of the U.S. market in key areas, including textiles and apparel, sugar and steel, that will also promote improved U.S. competitiveness.

Trade Preference Programs: ECAT actively worked in support of the renewal of the: Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the third-country fabric provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), and trade preferences with Peru, Colombia, as well as in support of a new preference program with Haiti. ECAT submitted comments to the Administration to urge that it not precipitously graduate key countries that benefit from the GSP program and to propose continued consideration of the expansion of the program to areas of most interest by the least-developed countries, including sugar and textiles and apparel. Congress passed legislation extending GSP, AGOA, and the Andean preferences and providing new preferences with Haiti at the end of December 2006.
Sugar: With respect to sugar policies, ECAT continued to support greater: liberalization of the U.S. market and the reform of policies that impede trade flows and trade liberalization in the DDA and beyond. ECAT is also working with a broad-based group of companies and associations to consider how to promote reform in sugar policies. ECAT submitted comments to the Administration in early 2007, urging that the U.S. implementation of duty-free, quota free access for least-developed countries include sugar and other key products as part of the implementation of a final WTO DDA agreement.
Steel: With respect to steel import tariffs, ECAT continued its work to promote the: termination of tariffs that undermine the competitiveness of the U.S. economy, supporting efforts by Members of Congress and submitting comments to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Trade Remedies: ECAT also continued work to consider ways to promote greater: commercial reasonableness within the trade remedy laws of the United States and other countries through the DDA negotiations. ECAT worked extensively to support Congressional efforts to bring the United States back into compliance with its existing WTO commitments on rules, in particular through the repeal of the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (the so-called Byrd Amendment), which has been found by the WTO to contravene U.S. ommitments. The repeal of this legislation was included in the budget reconciliation package on February 1, 2006.

Export Controls and Unilateral Sanctions. ECAT continued to work to ensure that export controls fully reflect the commercial issues faced by our companies and that unilateral sanctions are eliminated. In particular, ECAT continued to work to prevent the adoption of changes in deemed export control regulations that would undermine commercial operations through overly-restrictive requirements.

The Continued Need for Trade Outreach

Despite the importance of trade and investment liberalization in supporting economic growth and a high standard of living in the United States, there remains much skepticism in Congress and the broader public on whether the United States should continue to pursue liberalized trade and investment. In their 2001 book, Globalization and the Perceptions of American Workers, Kenneth Scheve and Matthew Slaughter review public opinion surveys dating back to the 1930s documenting this uncertainty. Their review indicates that while a large majority of Americans acknowledge the gains from globalization, a plurality to a majority are worried about the impact of trade and globalization on labor issues, particularly wages and jobs.

Given the gap between public perception and most economic studies that demonstrate the value of trade and investment liberalization to the growth of the U.S. economy, it is clear that trade outreach efforts must continue and be reinvigorated. ECAT is committed to continuing and heightening its efforts in this area. ECAT also plans to continue the use of and further develop trade outreach messages to communicate the benefits of trade to Congress, as well as to American workers and their families.

ECAT’s Trade Outreach Messages

ECAT’s trade outreach messages are based on focus group research on public attitudes and sentiments about trade carried out with ECAT member company employees and the general public in different parts of the country. The findings of the research indicate that pro-trade supporters need to talk about trade in ways that not only inform, but also respond to public anxiety about the impact of trade and economic expansion. The research also revealed that positive trade messages must be: (1) credible, and not “oversell” the benefits of trade; (2) centered around how trade and investment support a better home and family life; (3) focused on the ways in which employees personally benefit from their company’s role in trade, and (4) organized around the theme of trade as a road to life and growth.

The research also found that certain words and phrases are more effective than others when talking about trade. Words such as higher standards of living, unlimited possibilities, choice, pioneer, opportunity, growth and explore are all positive terms to use when describing the benefits of trade. In contrast, words such as open trade, free trade, open markets, competition, more jobs, or global economy are likely to raise public anxiety about trade and should be avoided in communicating the benefits of trade.

ECAT has shared its message research with the broader U.S. business community, to help to shape communications on key issues on the U.S. trade agenda. In 1999, ECAT’s message research formed the basis of the communications developed by the U.S. Alliance for Trade Expansion for the Seattle WTO ministerial. ECAT also used the message research in developing its “food chain” proposal intended to put the spotlight on the human aspects of trade liberalization by focusing on the elimination of barriers to food trade. In 2000, ECAT’s message was used as the basis for the advertising and development of materials to promote PNTR with China. In 2001 and 2002, ECAT’s message helped form the basis of the communications developed by USTrade in support of Trade Promotion Authority and of pro-trade advertising developed by ECAT and The McGraw-Hill Companies. In 2005, similar themes were also included in advertising in support of Congressional approval of CAFTA.

ECAT’s Trade: Discover the Opportunity (TDO)^TM Employee Outreach Program

In October 1999, then ECAT Chairman Ernest Micek and Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson (R-8 MO) inaugurated ECAT’s innovative, website-based employee trade education program at a full-day trade education training session for ECAT member companies in St. Louis, Missouri. The TDO program is based on ECAT’s message research and is constructed around the themes of opportunity, growth, and success for individual employees. The program messages focus on how trade is helping employees achieve a better life and offers real life examples of ordinary Americans who are achieving their dreams because of expanding trade opportunities.

Under the TDO program, each subscribing ECAT member company is supplied with a set of trade education materials, such as posters and a newsletter template, which can be downloaded from the TDO portion of ECAT’s website. The TDO website also includes a “best practices” bulletin board, where we encourage ECAT member companies to share their experiences in implementing trade education programs. The materials are designed to be easily modified to fit individual company communications styles.