The U.S. Conference of Mayors Applauds Passage of Trade Promotion Authority Legislation

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Under the leadership of U.S. Conference of Mayors President (USCM) Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, the nation's mayors today applauded passage of the Trade Promotion Authority legislation (TPA-2015) in Congress.

"Mayors believe our nation's cities and local businesses need to be positioned to sell American-made products to the rest of the world.  We know people across the globe love American products and want to buy them," said USCM President Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson.  And this legislation ensures a fair trading system that gives them full access to Made-in-the-USA products and treats our workers fairly.  This is what economic development of the future is all about."

At its 2014 Annual Meeting in Dallas last June, The Conference of Mayors adopted policy in support of the Administration's efforts to pursue high-standard 21^st Century trade agreements that create jobs, increase exports and compete in a highly competitive globalized economy in the Pacific Rim and Europe.  USCM's own forecasts, through IHS Global Insight, show that U.S. city/metro economies will continue to account for more than 90% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, and 92% of its future economic growth—one-third of which will come from expanding exports.  Thus, TPA paves the way for metro economies to take full advantage of dramatically expanding markets overseas, which, in turn would further bolster the nation's economic future.

Most recently, USCM sent letters to the leadership of both the Senate (May 12) and House (June 10) to reiterate their support with mayoral signatures. 

"TPA is a critical step to ensuring that the United States and its metro economies remain leaders in the global market place," the mayors wrote in the letter.  "We believe that inclusion of enforceable labor and environmental standards, transparency, uniform tariffs, protection of intellectual property rights, and other standards and objectives will result in increased global trade that promotes fairness throughout the global trading system, and therefore increase U.S. competitiveness."

To view the letter(s) and mayoral signatures, please click here.

"The nation's mayors today are pleased that cooperation between the Administration and Congress can still yield important legislation that has far reaching positive, economic impact for U.S. businesses and workers. Passage of TPA means more increased growth and new jobs for cities and metropolitan areas," said Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are nearly 1400 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.

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SOURCE The U.S. Conference of Mayors

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