The Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce is partnering with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to encourage and support passage of the Korea Free Trade Agreement. According to the U.S.-Korea agreement can create more than 280,000 American jobs.

We don’t have to go on about the need for creating more jobs with the current situation concerning America’s unemployment rate. Recent paltry reports have done that for us.

The good news is that there are a number of steps our policymakers in Washington can take right now to help American businesses get on track and start hiring again. One of those steps is swift passage of three pending free trade agreements: Korea, Panama and Colombia. It has been estimated that failure to pass these agreements could cost another 380,000 American jobs.

As U.S. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue said earlier this week at the Chamber’s Jobs Summit, “We’ve waited for years to get these free trade agreements done. If we don’t do that, it’s criminal.”

This week, the Chamber launched a campaign to send 20,000 letters on the U.S. Korea free trade agreement in the next 20 days. With your help, we can send a message to Congree that they can’t ignore: action is needed now.

The U.S.-Korea trade deal has languished for four years, while our competitors have raced to pass their own agreements — leaving American companies and competitiveness behind.

A report published in 2009 showed that failure to implement the U.S.-Korea trade agreement would lead to a $35 million decline in exports of U.S. goods and services to the world.

Fewer exports mean lost jobs in America. Right now, that’s the last thing we need.

To view what trade means to Illinois jobs, visit here. For its impact on Illinois’ Congressional District 14, click here.

E-mail your members of Congress now and join the campaign to send 20,000 letters in the next 20 days before August recess. Click here to take action. In less than five minutes, you can send your support to Washington.

America needs more jobs. This free trade agreement is one major step toward creating them.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 14th, 2011 at 10:15 am and is filed under advocacy, economic development, Federal legislation, legislative affairs, membership, stimulus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.