John B. Breaux: “I strongly support the Singapore and Chile Free Trade Agreements and believe they will promote domestic growth in…”

“I strongly support the Singapore and Chile Free Trade Agreements and believe they will promote domestic growth in manufacturing and exports. I look forward to seeing these agreements enacted into law. However, I am concerned about the current U.S. negotiating objective of restricting, limiting or otherwise eliminating drawback and duty deferral rights for U.S. manufacturers and exporters in free trade agreements, FTA. The administration's current policy places U.S. companies at a significant competitive disadvantage in the global market. Free trade agreements should include no language that eliminates or otherwise restricts the application of duty drawback and duty deferral programs to U.S. manufacturers and exporters. The language in the United States-Singapore and United States-Israel FTAs, for example, have no such restrictive language and we should model future agreements after these FTAs. This issue is of significant importance to many U.S. manufacturers and exporters, including those in my home state of Louisiana.”