UK Trade Deal, NAFTA Renegotiation Should Be Priorities of New Administration, Chamber CEO Says

The incoming Trump administration should consider a trade deal with the United Kingdom, avoid creating new trade barriers and promote intellectual property protections around the world, U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue said at Jan. 11 event. “The president-elect says he wants to expand trade, and negotiate strong new trade deals for our country,” Donohue said during his annual “State of American Business” address. “I’m in. Let’s do it.” Trade deals under the Trump administration should lower trade barriers of other countries that block U.S. exports, should protect IP and digital industries through tough enforcement, and should ensure that U.S. investments abroad are protected by the rule of law “and a level playing field,” Donohue said. Trade policy in 2017 should increasingly consider how to better expand the benefits of trade to workers, he said. In the hopes of hearing how the chamber can benefit small businesses more effectively, chamber officials will travel away from the centers of New York and Washington to hold regional business conferences across the nation, Donohue said, part of a push to start a “grassroots army” with small and medium-sized business employees.