Exports Vital To Economic Recovery, Argues U.S. Trade Rep

By Simone Götesson

The United States needs to increase the level at which it exports goods in order to bounce back from economic hardship, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk argued Thursday.

“If America is going to continue to grow and be creative … we have to be able to access the 95 percent of consumers who live outside the United States,” Kirk said during a breakfast sponsored by the Washington International Trade Association (WITA).

To meet this goal, the Obama administration has laid out a plan of to double the rate at which the U.S. exports by 2014, a goal that Kirk says the U.S. is close to achieving.

“We are well on track,” he said. “We didn’t just pick that number out of the air, we knew that this was something we could do.”

Acknowledging the frustration some Americans have with international trade policy, Kirk admitted that the government hasn’t always kept their promises to American workers, but stressed that the Obama administration will use every tool they have to enforce the rights of both U.S. exporters and workers.

“One way we can do that is …[to] stay firm on our pledge to honor our commitment to our workers, enforce our agreements and always fight for a level playing field,” Kirk said. “If we do that, we can credential trade as the vibrant tool that it can be to help us grow our economy and create jobs and put America back to work.”

Note: President Obama will meet with Panama’s President, Ricardo Martinelli, today at the White House. The two leaders are expected to discuss a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and Panama that the administration has been lobbying agressively for all year.