CEOs press Bush on trade talks

Chief executives of the biggest Wall Street firms Tuesday urged President Bush to make greater access to overseas markets for U.S. financial services a higher priority than it is now.

Such a shift could come at the expense of manufacturers and farmers, groups that also are lobbying the White House on trade.

The Financial Services Forum, a lobbying group of banks, securities firms and insurance companies, warned Bush in a letter that “the continued growth and vitality” of their businesses hinged on the administration’s ability to negotiate trade agreements that lower barriers to investment.

“We respectfully urge the administration to make the expansion of market access for financial services firms a first-tier priority in all trade negotiations -- both bilateral and multinational efforts -- especially the Doha round,” the Washington-based group says in the letter.

The Doha round of World Trade Organization talks is named after the city in Qatar where the talks began in 2001. Negotiations resumed in January after breaking down last July because the U.S. resisted cutting farm subsidies more unless India, the European Union and Japan agreed to steep cuts in their agriculture duties.

The forum’s letter was signed by the group’s 20 members, including Charles Prince of Citigroup Inc., Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Richard Fuld of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch & Co. and John Mack of Morgan Stanley.

The letter says the U.S. financial services industry is much larger than the American farm sector and almost as large as the U.S. manufacturing industry.

U.S. financial institutions “continue to encounter significant obstacles abroad” such as foreign ownership limits, licensing quotas and excessive regulation, the group said. The obstacles can be “effectively addressed” at the World Trade Organization, the group said.