Political deadlock in Washington during the Clinton years has forced the U.S. to the sidelines as other countries forged trade and commercial deals which have excluded American products and companies. That is the conclusion of a report being issued today by the Business Roundtable -- an organization comprised of 140 of the nation's top corporate heads.

• The report claims other nations are "cutting deals without us, gradually surrounding the United States with a network of preferential trade agreements."

• While the U.S. signed hundreds of trade deals with other countries during the Clinton presidency, it is a party to only two of the world's 130 free-trade agreements -- which are larger and more sweeping in scope than pacts with individual countries or agreements concerned with specific industries.

• The U.S. has free-trade pacts with Israel, and -- under the North American Free Trade Agreement -- with Canada and Mexico.

• An agreement with Jordan is pending in Congress and negotiations are underway with Singapore and Chile.

Source: James Cox, "U.S. Losing Out as Foreign Trade Pacts Pile Up, CEOs Say," USA Today, February 9, 2001.

For more on Business Roundtable report http://www.brtable.org/new.cfm