The Arizona Prosperity Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit collaborative effort of the state's business community to provide up-to-date, easily accessible information to Arizona businesses and their employees about federal, state, and local government activities that have an effect on the state's economic growth and business climate. The information available will enable Arizona citizens to promptly and easily contact their elected representatives and to make informed choices about whom to support in elections.
The Arizona Prosperity Project is built on this belief: when Arizona workers are informed and active in government and elections, our families, our communities and our state will benefit. It was created to help educate our state's employers and workers about issues that impact job security, economic competitiveness, wages and benefits – and ultimately our future prosperity.
Today's HOT Issue
The Arizona Prosperity Project is pleased to announce that President Obama has sent the three pending free trade agreements (FTAs) with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to Congress for approval. These agreements represent opportunities for American manufacturers and their workers, and for a recovering and growing U.S. economy. Manufacturers, regardless of size, will benefit from the new opportunities presented by these market-opening agreements. This is a no-cost, deficit-neutral stimulus package that will increase manufacturing employment in America.
Manufacturers strongly support all three trade agreements. U.S. manufactured goods trade is in surplus with existing FTA partners, and implementation of the pending trade agreements will boost U.S. exports by as much as $13 billion annually and create tens of thousands of new manufacturing jobs in America.Since Congress passed the Peru FTA in 2007, the United States has not taken any action to pass existing agreements or begin new negotiations on any bilateral agreements. Four of our largest competitors – Canada, the European Union (EU), Japan and Korea – have either completed or are in the process of negotiating nearly 40 separate trade agreements with nearly 100 countries. In every one of these markets, we will face disadvantages that will impair our ability to competitively sell our products.
It is anticipated that the House will move quickly to approve these agreements.
To learn more, please contact Frank Vargo, Vice President of International Economic Affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers at 202-637-3144.
* This information was prepared and distributed by the National Association of Manufacturers on October 4, 2011.
Prosperity Project STAR Program Award
Arizona Prosperity Project has been recognized for best 2010 Voter Recognition/GOTV efforts from the national business organization BIPAC. Using the Arizona Prosperity Project, the Arizona Chamber communicated with more than 125,000 Arizonans during 2009-2010. The program focuses on the direct impact that public policy and politics have on jobs and economic growth. It allows individuals to make a difference in their own prosperity by becoming more informed about those issues and taking actions that are in their own best interest.
To read the full press release, please click here.
