A round-up of news coverage on Business Roundtable's trade priorities...

Washington Times, "Time right for new trade deals, CEOs say":

The United States should take advantage of a rare burst of momentum on the international trade front before it dissipates, a group of top American CEOs said Thursday.

Business Roundtable officials, in a briefing with reporters to discuss the group’s trade priorities, welcomed the recent news that the U.S. is negotiating a new trade deal with the European Union and said the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership with a group of Pacific Rim trading partners could be nailed down by the end of the year.

But to do so the Obama administration needs to find a new trade ambassador and Congress needs to give the president the authority to negotiate more deals, the group warned.

MarketWatch, "CEO group pushes for renewed U.S. trade authority":

An association of chief executives of big U.S. companies including Alcoa Inc., Merck & Co., Inc. said Thursday it will push this year for legislation giving the White House fast-track trade negotiating authority, something that lapsed in 2007.

“We’re going to make Trade Promotion Authority a key part of our advocacy this year,” John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable, told reporters.

The authority was last passed by Congress in 2002, over the objections of many House Democrats.

The Hill, "White House facing pressure from US business groups on trade with Japan," on negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

Business leaders are pressuring the White House to refuse to lower the bar for Japan on trade talks ahead of a White House meeting Friday between President Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe....

Engler argued that the trade talks are “too far down the road” to add Japan at this time. Doing so could set back efforts to wrap up the talks this year, something that could also curtail Obama’s ambition to double U.S. exports by 2015, a promise he made in his 2010 State of the Union address.

“They are too late to this party,” Engler said of Japan.

Engler says Japan could be invited into the partnership once the terms for inclusion are set by the countries now negotiating the pact.

“One of the objectives is to get a higher standard agreement in place, and it's important to get it done, then invite Japan to come on board,” he said.

Coincidently, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the importance of a U.S.-EU trade agreement in her annual speech to the Bundestag, the equivalent of a State of the Union speech:

Merkel told Parliament Thursday that she hoped negotiations this year would produce an agreement that would not only help commerce, but also create such a powerful trade zone that the U.S. and EU together could set industry standards and norms.

She says "if we don't, then others in the world will do it according to their work and production standards, which are at times far removed from our values."