White House says US on track to double exports in five years

The White House has said the US is on track to double exports in the next five years and President Barack Obama named the chief executives of United Parcel Services (UPS) and other companies to a presidential advisory board on trade issues, Dow Jones reported.

Obama, in a speech at the White House, touted a variety of steps his administration is taking to boost exports and reposition the American economy to compete abroad.

Such moves include pushing hard to improve ambitions of the Doha round of trade talks, increasing access to export financing for small and medium-sized businesses and ensuring foreign companies are competing fairly.

He applauded China's decision recently to allow its currency to appreciate in response to market forces.

Obama said the economy isn't growing fast enough, and added that U.S. growth can't be based on "fleeting bubbles of consumption, of debt; it can't rely on paper gains."

He added, the U.S. is "prepared to compete aggressively for the jobs and industries and markets of the future."

Obama had said in his State of the Union address to Congress that he wanted to double exports in the next five years from the US$1.57 trillion worth of goods and services sent abroad in 2009 as a way to support several million jobs.

The White House released a report earlier in the week detailing progress the administration has made on this front, including signing deals with China and Russia to reopen their countries for US pork and chicken producers.

The report also notes that exports were up 17 percent, or about $86 billion, in the first four months of this year, compared with the $502 billion worth of US goods and services sent offshore in 2009.

The growth in exports comes on the heels of the biggest trade drop in generations as the recession shook US and world economies.

Obama said he wants to build on this momentum. He acknowledged, however, that the growth is partly due to the global recovery.

Trade policy analysts predicted the president's goal of doubling exports will be difficult to achieve. Exports would have to increase at a compounded rate of 15 percent a year for five years. US export growth hasn't reached 15 percent since 1988. Meanwhile, US exports haven't doubled since the high inflationary times of the 1970s.

"It seems virtually impossible to do it in a low-inflation environment," said Daniel Griswold, director for trade policy studies at the Cato Institute, a free-market libertarian think tank. "It's a worthy goal, but [the president] may be setting himself up for some disappointment."

Tim Hanley, US process and industrial products leader for Deloitte and Touche, said the administration's goal increases the pressure on Congress to approval pending free trade agreements with South Korea, Panama and Columbia, as well as pass several additional trade pacts in the coming years to remove foreign tariffs on US-made goods.

"Most people believe it's just a very ambitious goal unless you're willing make some additional changes that aren't on the table," Hanley said about doubling exports.

But free trade agreements are widely unpopular with many Congressional Democrats, who see them as exposing US workers to more low-cost foreign competitors. The proposed trade deals with South Korea, Panama and Columbia were negotiated during the Bush Administration.
(Source:www.cargonewsasia.com)