FACTBOX-Obama's measures to double U.S. exports in 5 years

March 11 | Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:57pm EST

March 11 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama outlined steps on Thursday that his administration will take to meet its goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years. [ID:nN10146021]

Below are highlights of those measures, according to the White House:

GROUPS

Obama is creating an "export promotion cabinet" made up of the secretaries of State, Treasury and Commerce, along with White House aides and other trade agency heads.

He also relaunched the President's Export Council, a private sector group to advise him on trade issues. It will be led by Boeing Co's (BA.N) president and chief executive Jim McNerney and Xerox Co (XRX.N) chief executive Ursula Burns.

FINANCIAL HELP

Obama announced a new $2 billion Export-Import Bank credit facility to help small and medium-sized businesses increase overseas sales.

ADVOCACY

The White House touted more than 40 "trade and reverse trade" missions this year to advocate for U.S. businesses.

It said the Department of Commerce was starting a new public-private partnership to engage U.S. shipping giants such as FedEx (FDX.N), UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to help U.S. businesses that only export to one or two countries to expand.

GLOBAL TALKS

The White House said Trade Representative Ron Kirk would continue to push for enforcement of U.S. trade agreements while working toward new ones, including the global Doha pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and -- "at an appropriate time" -- agreements with Panama, Colombia, and Korea.

EXPORT CONTROLS

The Commerce Department is seeking to help high-technology exports with a proposed rule aimed at reducing the time for export license reviews for cell phones, network storage systems and other products with encryption technology to 30 minutes from the current 30 to 60 days.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will outline additional export control proposals in coming weeks. (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Doug Palmer; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Stocks
Markets
Technology

Related Quotes and News

Company
Price
Related News
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (9)
vintel7 wrote:
Another great move by President Obama. Most of the 53% of us that have supported The President from the beginning…still strongly support him. The President was elected with 53% of the pop. vote. Talk of Obama’s declining numbers are pure rubbish. The President has always had a strong 53%. An Ap poll yesterday had him at 53%. Ironic how another published scientific study published the other day correlated intelligence with political affiliation. Dems and “Liberals” had IQ’s 30-40% higher than republicans on average. The most intelligent Americans tend to strongly support The President and the least intelligent seem to hate him with a vengeance. It’s difficult to understand this phenom without a knowledge of Spiral Dynamics.

Mar 11, 2010 6:53pm EST  --  Report as abuse
BeholdersEye wrote:
I am sorry, but his plan will mean nothing if it do not involve ending our Imperial based measuring system and only use Metric. Why? Because if you are a shop worker you need to purchase your own tools and only American Workers must have two set (Imperial and Metric) of tools to work anywhere. If not then the company must have the two sets of tools and two sets of hardware in stock/inventory to produce or repair things or products. All other countries only use Metric. How is that being competitive? We have to spend more just because we are forced to support to different hardwares. That is BS and Stupidity to the MAX! END “AMERICAN STANDARD HARDWARE” AND ONLY USE METRIC!

Mar 11, 2010 9:07pm EST  --  Report as abuse
BeholdersEye wrote:
I am sorry, but his plan will mean nothing if it do not involve ending our Imperial based measuring system and only use Metric. Why? Because if you are a shop worker you need to purchase your own tools and only American Workers must have two set (Imperial and Metric) of tools to work anywhere. If not then the company must have the two sets of tools and two sets of hardware in stock/inventory to produce or repair things or products. All other countries only use Metric. How is that being competitive? We have to spend more just because we are forced to support to different hardwares. That is BS and Stupidity to the MAX! END “AMERICAN STANDARD HARDWARE” AND ONLY USE METRIC!

Mar 11, 2010 9:10pm EST  --  Report as abuse
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
See All Comments »