U.S. lays out strategy for doubling exports in 5 years
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration laid out details of a strategy to double U.S. exports over five years on Thursday, recommending ways to boost commerce but steering clear of timetables for advancing stalled free-trade agreements.
The release of the National Export Initiative report, produced by President Barack Obama's "export promotion cabinet" of top advisers and government agencies, sought to highlight the administration's efforts to support the struggling economy and create jobs, the top issue ahead of November 2 elections.
"Exports are actually leading our economic recovery," Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told reporters on a conference call ahead of the report's release, noting exports were up roughly 18 percent over the same period last year.
"The more that American companies export, the more they produce. The more they produce, the more people they hire. And that means more jobs," he said.
U.S. officials said opening markets and enforcing existing trade pacts were part of the process of increasing exports. But the report did not lay out a timeline for wrapping up free-trade pacts with Colombia and Panama.
Obama has said he wants to resolve outstanding concerns over a free-trade agreement with South Korea by November so he can submit it to Congress by early next year.
"On Panama and Colombia, (Obama) has similarly said that we hope to be able to resolve the outstanding issues and bring them forward whenever that's feasible," White House deputy national security adviser Michael Froman said on the call.
"The report does not specify a timetable beyond that."
Obama has made expanding trade a priority among his limited tools to jumpstart economic growth and battle nearly double-digit unemployment, factors that could cost his Democrats their majorities in one or both houses of Congress in November elections.
U.S. exports would need to grow from $1.57 trillion in 2009 to $3.14 trillion by 2015 to meet Obama's goal of doubling over five years, the report said.
The report's recommendations include:
* An "outreach campaign" to raise awareness among small and medium sized companies about export opportunities and available government assistance.
* Implementing a "government-wide export promotion strategy" for markets in Colombia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey and Vietnam.
* Increasing U.S. trade missions abroad.
* Bringing more international buyers to U.S. trade shows and boosting participation of U.S. companies in international trade shows.
(Editing by Bill Trott)
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Whether other countries will consent to seeing their currencies rise in response to a weakening greenback – the Japanese have made clear they won’t – and whether Uncle Sam’s overseas creditors, whose Treasury holdings are entirely dominated in US dollars, will stand idly by while their ‘investments’ are eroded by a weakening greenback remains to be seen.
America has benefited enormously from being able to issue its debt entirely in its domestic currency, and foreign buyers have taken on the FX risk. A weakening currency might change that dynamic to one where Uncle Sam has to take the FX risk, and that could prove painful, especially if the USD really tumbles.
You apparently have come up with all the issues and possible scenarios for fixing them at the same time. That’s good.
But the disparity is so huge, it would most likely create more new ills if we tried to fix the economy using exchange rates. Slapping on tariffs is also damaging to both sides, but much more so for the U.S. since American goods will still not be able to compete with cheap imports whether they are from China, Asia, India or Eastern Europe. The American public will just be buying more “expensive” imports and suffer higher inflation. There is no easy way out and it gets worse when our brainless politicians refuse to acknowledge the futility of blaming exchange rates.
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