NFTC Policy Paper Outlines Priorities for New Congress, Trump Administration
The incoming Trump administration and new Congress should implement policies allowing for U.S. participation in multilateral trade arrangements, review of U.S. economic progress under NAFTA and through World Trade Organization membership, and increase investments in port infrastructure, among other things, the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) said in a policy brief (here). Taking part in a growing network of preferential trading arrangements would facilitate U.S. export competition, stronger global trade rules, U.S. trade enforcement, and U.S. business investments in innovation and technology, the NFTC said in the paper. The NFTC touted the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying it advances “forward-looking global rules” to provide for openness in agriculture, high-end manufacturing, the digital economy, and technology, as well as new disciplines for state-owned enterprises, intellectual property protection, and better labor and environmental policies.
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Substantial investments by Congress and the incoming administration in port and other infrastructure will allow companies to move products more efficiently, the NFTC said. “The potential gains in U.S. competitiveness and economic efficiency are well worth the investment,” the paper said. U.S. trade policy "should be structured to maintain and expand U.S. leadership in creating a more open and rules-based global economy through the use of a muscular but strategic negotiating and enforcement effort,” it said. The group also called for Congress and the Trump administration to adopt a tax system whereby domestic-only companies, global American companies and overseas-headquartered companies compete under the same tax rules.