FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: Moya Morgan
Tuesday, September 19, 2000	202.585.0215
HIGH-TECH CEOs PRAISE SENATE VOTE ON PNTR AS WIN FOR HIGH-TECH COMPANIES AND EMPLOYEES
Washington, DC - The Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP), a coalition of 10 Chief Executive Officers and Chairmen from America`s leading information-technology companies, today praised the bipartisan Senate passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) legislation with China, calling it a significant win for U.S. high-tech companies and employees. "We commend the Senate for this historic vote," said Carly Fiorina, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Company.  Fiorina, who co-chairs CSPP`s China PNTR effort with Intel Chairman Andy Grove, added “Establishing permanent normal trade relations with China is critical to the U.S., not only because China is the largest, fastest growing market in the world for information technology products but also because normalizing trade with China will strengthen world economic and political stability.” "Passage of this bill is good news for the United States,” added Intel Chairman Andy Grove.  “It puts China on the same commercial footing that we have 138 other countries on, and it allows us to concentrate on solving the myriad of real trade-related issues day to day commerce involves." CSPP is the information technology industry`s leading advocacy organization comprised exclusively of Chairmen and CEOs.  Louis V. Gerstner, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM Corporation, is Chairman of the coalition, which has worked to develop and advocate the IT industry`s public policy positions on technology and trade issues. Currently, CSPP is focused on issues such as export controls, international trade, consumer confidence, Networked World readiness assessment and digital inclusion.   CSPP`s current members are: Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. of IBM Corporation; Robert Bishop of SGI; Michael Capellas of Compaq Computer Corporation; Michael S. Dell of Dell Computer Corporation; Carleton S. Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard Company; Andrew S. Grove of Intel Corporation; Richard A. McGinn of Lucent Technologies; Scott G. McNealy of Sun Microsystems, Inc; Lars Nyberg of NCR Corporation; Lawrence A. Weinbach of Unisys Corporation.  For more information please go to www.cspp.org.