Caterpillar CEO urges Congress to enact FTAs with Panama, South Korea, Colombia
RTT News | 3/30/2011
Caterpillar CEO urges Congress to enact FTAs with Panama, South Korea, Colombia
(RTTNews) — Construction and mining equipment giant Caterpillar, Inc. announced Wednesday that its Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman has urged Congress to move on to enact pending Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the U.S. and Panama, South Korea and Colombia in order to boost exports, and support domestic jobs.
Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar noted that Oberhelman revealed this while testifying before House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade.
"The message about the success of FTAs is too important to get lost. American manufacturers can compete with anyone—provided they have open markets and a level playing field. Opening foreign markets is a fundamental competitive challenge for the United States to increase exports and generate more U.S. jobs," Oberhelman said.
Oberhelman said that an FTA with Panama will see a 3 to 10 percent cut in tariffs on Caterpillar products exported from the U.S., and it will see 5 to 10 percent lower tariffs on an FTA with Columbia. The lower tariffs would in turn benefit the company, its employees and its customers, he added.
The enactment of FTAs with these countries will open up market access for U.S. farm products, consumer goods and services. It will also help the U.S. to sell all its produced products to Panama duty-free and provide it a competitive edge over products made in other parts of the world.
Oberhelman noted that since the FTAs with Mexico, Chile, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Peru went into effect, Caterpillar exports have increased substantially to those regions of the world, with exports up fivefold to Mexico, threefold to Chile and up by more than 60 percent to Peru.
"We need to open those foreign markets with a sense of urgency, before our competitors in Asia, Europe, South America and Canada leapfrog us with their own trade agreements," Oberhelman stated.
CAT closed Wednesday’s regular trading session at $111.53, up $0.99 or 0.90 percent on a volume of 5.62 million shares.
