WASHINGTON, D.C. - Testifying Tuesday morning before the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, a small manufacturer and National Association of Manufacturers board member advocated successful completion of the ongoing round of World Trade Organization talks and reported that, "In many ways, smaller firms probably need the WTO system even more than large firms."

Dwight F. "Dyke" Messinger, president and CEO of Power Curbers, Inc. of Salisbury, NC, employs more than 100 people in the manufacture of curbing and paving machines.

Emphasizing that his company exports to more than 70 countries and that small and medium-size companies account for roughly 30% of U.S. exports, Messinger also noted that, "Commerce Department data show that one out of every five manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is directly related to exports."

He explained that current trade costs that result from discriminatory foreign standards, counterfeiting and intellectual property theft, customs clearance and other delays disproportionately affect smaller firms who are less able to pay.

Thanks to WTO rules, continued Messinger, "Barriers have been coming down and small firms like mine have benefited. But, we still face tariffs and trade barriers that are much too high. We could sell more to existing customers and we could find new customers if other countries didn't throw up one barrier after another. The Doha Round of WTO negotiations offers the best opportunity to bring such barriers down.

"Trade liberalization over the years has been a boon to our U.S. manufacturing base as more markets are now open to us than ever before," Messinger said. "The more foreign markets open to us, and the fairer trade is, the more we will sell and the more American workers we'll add to our payrolls."

To assure such progress, "The U.S. must continue its determined, aggressive world leadership on behalf of trade expansion and completion of a Doha Round that includes deep cuts in industrial trade barriers," insisted Messinger. "Accordingly, Congress must vote to renew our WTO membership."

He concluded his testimony with strong support for bilateral free trade agreements: "My company had previously faced duties of 6% in Chile and 5% in Australia. As a result of our FTAs with those countries, we can now export to both countries duty free while our competitors are still paying these duties. American manufacturing strongly believes that passage of CAFTA-DR is in the best interest of the United States."

Messinger's full testimony is posted at: http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=169&DID=234131&DOC=FILE.PDF.