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January 25, 2008

Ontario Chamber Supports Free Trade Agreement Despite Congressman Joe Baca’s Opposition

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce voted to support more jobs for Ontario businesses who seek to gain more trade opportunities with Peru. The United States / Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) passed the US House of Representatives seeking an increased effort to boost manufacturing and trade opportunities.

“Our regional manufacturing industry plays an important role in Ontario,” stated Mark Smiley, President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber. “Our trade policy priorities call for the Chamber to support opportunities for our area business that may impact job growth in our business community,” Smiley continued.

The Chamber sent letters of support to Congressman Joe Baca’s, urging his support of the PTPA. According to the United States Chamber of Commerce, Congressman Baca was a needed “yes” vote and the Congressman wanted to hear from the Ontario Chamber before he voted. Despite the Ontario Chamber’s effort to secure the Congressman’s support, he eventually opposed the free trade agreement.

In September, the Ontario Chamber and several business leaders invested in a trip to Washington DC to meet face-to-face with the Ontario congressional delegation. “We invested time and resources to build a lasting relationship with key policymakers that impact issues such as trade and job creation,” stated Smiley.

“We are disappointed that Congressman Baca voted against the free trade agreement. After meeting in September in his office in Washington DC about supporting laws that improve job creation and then less than two months later we wrote a letter to him and called his office asking for him to support this free trade agreement,” stated Bob Cruz, Chair of the Chamber Government Affairs Committee. “We will continue to educate our legislators on key business related issues,” Cruz continued.

The free trade agreement will not only help sustain many jobs throughout the Ontario area, but thousands of jobs in our country. Over 5,000 companies in the United States export their products to Peru. Many of those companies are small and medium-sized companies similar many companies located in Ontario.

Currently, trade with Peru is already benefiting the United States and the PTPA will now only enhance our trade relations within the region and support our businesses bottom lines enabling more jobs to be created in Ontario and throughout our country. The agreement will also foster democracy and development in the Andean region, allowing the United States to unilaterally open its markets to most imports from Peru and its neighbors.

It is already believed that most of Peru’s imports already enter the U.S. marketplace duty-free, and the average U.S. duty on imports from Peru is just one-tenth of one percent. The U.S. International Trade Commission reports that "most of Peru's average tariff rates range from 12% to 25% allowing Peru to enjoy nearly free access to our marketplace while our access to their marketplace remains limited. PTPA fixes this imbalance.