Obama orders cabinet group to spearhead export drive
Facing pressure to boost jobs to help an economic revival, President
Barack Obama unveiled a broad initiative Thursday to pry open foreign
markets for US exports, targeting huge emerging economies like China,
India and Brazil.
The National Export Initiative plans to double US exports in five
years with a comprehensive strategy to identify markets for fast-growing
sectors such as environmental goods and services, renewable energy,
healthcare and biotechnology, officials said.
Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, releasing details of the new strategy,
said Obama had ordered a Cabinet-level group to oversee the strategy
with a vigorous effort to remove trade barriers and make accessible
export financing to US firms.
"This initiative will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed
other countries to slowly chip away at the United States' international
competitiveness," Locke told a National Press Club forum in Washington.
Obama's export drive is aimed at helping create two million jobs in
the US, still reeling from double-digit unemployment that threatens to
dampen its economic recovery.
The new policy will see the creation of an "export promotion Cabinet"
reporting to the president, including leaders of the Commerce, State and
Agriculture departments and the office of the US Trade Representative.
The move "represents the first time the United States will have a
government-wide export promotion strategy with focused attention from
the president and his Cabinet," Locke said.
US exports for the first 11 months of last year amounted to 1.411
trillion dollars, compared with 1.827 trillion dollars for the whole of
2008.
"But while the US is a major exporter, we are underperforming," Locke
said. "US exports as a percentage of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) are
still well below nearly all of our major economic competitors."
Exports support nearly 10 million jobs in America and almost seven
million jobs in manufacturing - and manufacturing jobs pay on average 15
percent more than the average wage.
Obama has vowed to get tougher on countries like China to open up
their markets in "reciprocal ways" and ensure that currency rates are
not designed to blunt American trade competitiveness.
AFP
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