Prepared pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, the document outlines the Bush Administration s guiding principles and trade priorities for the year ahead and reviews the principal trade policy developments of 2000. In an overview statement accompanying the documents, U.S. Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick stated, The Bush administration is strongly committed to a trade policy that will remove trade barriers in foreign markets, while further liberalizing our market at home. Exports accounted for over one-quarter of U.S. economic growth over the last decade and support an estimated 12 million American jobs. Second, as President Bush has stated, free trade is about freedom.
Economic freedom creates habits of liberty and habits of liberty create expectations of democracy.
Third, expanded trade affects our nation s security. The crises of the first 45 years of the last century were inextricably linked with hostile protectionism and national socialism. Ambassador Zoellick s remarks may strike a familiar cord with ANSI members. Though Ambassador Zoellick s Overview comments do not specifically call out standards and conformity assessment programs, his statements confirm that the work currently underway within the standardization community is closely linked with the Trade Policy Agenda for 2001. In his summary, the Ambassador also stated, I would like the United States to move on multiple fronts because the message I want to send to the world is that the United States is willing to negotiate, . . .