Washington, D.C. – National Association of Manufacturers President and CEO Jay Timmons released the following statement welcoming the trade announcement from the United States and China:

President Trump has landed an historic, enforceable deal that protects a broad range of U.S. intellectual property, such as trade secrets, and provides strong, new tools to tackle counterfeiting of our products. The agreement also ensures tough enforcement to protect manufacturing innovations and, most importantly, the jobs of American workers today and into the future. For two years, manufacturers have been the leading voice for an enforceable agreement to make China play by the rules and stop cheating once and for all. This is an enormous step forward to achieving that goal.

The NAM first called for the administration to pursue a bilateral trade agreement with China in a letter from Timmons to President Trump in January 2018. The NAM has released a full negotiating objectives framework for an agreement that will address China’s unfair trade practices and level the playing field for manufacturers in the United States.

Today’s announcement represents real progress, and manufacturers look forward to working with President Trump and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to achieve additional concrete outcomes on other key unfair trade practices that translate into a lasting, game-changing agreement.

-NAM-

The National Association of Manufacturers is the largest manufacturing association in the United States, representing small and large manufacturers in every industrial sector and in all 50 states. Manufacturing employs more than 12.8 million men and women, contributes $2.38 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, has the largest economic multiplier of any major sector and accounts for more than three-quarters of private-sector research and development. The NAM is the powerful voice of the manufacturing community and the leading advocate for a policy agenda that helps manufacturers compete in the global economy and create jobs across the United States. For more information about the Manufacturers or to follow us on Twitter and Facebook, please visit www.nam.org.