NFTC: Kirk should progress with Pacific agreement

NFTC: Kirk should progress with Pacific agreement    The National Foreign Trade Council is urging U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to move forward with negotiations to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement between Southeast Asian nations and New Zealand.
   The TPP members are seeking to add the United States, Peru, Australia and Vietnam to the group. Recent press reports suggest Kirk is amenable to the idea of joining the agreement.
   'If press reports are accurate, this is indeed good news and the NFTC and its members strongly support Ambassador Kirk’s vision for using the TPP negotiations as a means to expand our commercial engagement with the Asia-Pacific region,' said Chuck Dittrich, NFTC vice president for regional trade initiatives, in a statement.
   'The strategy that seems to be emerging from USTR is to engage our trading partners on a multitude of levels, including enforcement of existing agreements and resolution of longstanding disputes. Engaging early on through the TPP to develop a creative approach to a plurilateral and comprehensive market opening initiative in the Asia-Pacific region jump starts this administration’s strategy and signals to our trading partners that the United States is serious about expanding markets for American products and services.'