NEW YORK -- The Obama administration must make every effort to ensure that the government works for a global standstill on protectionist measures both by the United States Congress and by the major U.S. trading partners or the result will be "economic disaster."
In his keynote address to the first Journal of Commerce Exports Conference, Frank Vargo, vice president of international economic affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers, said the U.S. must also continue to negotiate bilateral free trade agreements, which he called the "brightest part of our trade picture."
In the question-and-answer period that followed his address, Regina Vargo, his wife and a former assistant U.S. trade negotiator, said she thought that free trade agreements with Panama and Colombia will be approved by Congress later this year but that it will take some time because Congress' attention is currently focused on the economic stimulus plan.
The FTAs with South Korea will not pass this year because of concerns by both nations on provisions governing the automobile trade, she said.
"The U.S. government is not doing a good job of promoting U.S. exports," Frank Vargo said, adding that even though the U.S. is still the world's largest manufacturer, its share of the global market for manufactured goods has fallen to 10 percent from 14 percent a few years ago.
"The U.S. government is spending far more to promote agricultural exports than it does to promote manufacturing exports, he said. "Congress appropriates twice as much for agricultural exports as it does for manufactured exports. For example, the U.S. will pay for half or more of all travel costs overseas by U.S. agriculture exporters but it doesn’t pay anything for travel by exporters of manufactured goods.
The proportion of the U.S. budget that goes to export promotions has been declining since the Sixties, he pointed out.
He called on President Obama to take a number of measures to help promote U.S. exports. It should work toward easing the growing shortage of skilled manufacturing workers; lower excessive corporate taxation which he said is the highest in the world; address soaring health and litigation costs, and lower barriers created by export controls which are still aimed at the former Soviet Union.
At the same time, Vargo said that Customs' new importer security filing rule, known as 10+2, is going to cost $20 billion and add five days to importers' supply chains annually.
As for China, a major exporter, he said, "China has maintained a severely undervalued currency and is now talking about devaluing it further," and called on Obama to "work very carefully with China to get its cooperation."By Peter T. Leach / The JOURNAL of COMMERCE ONLINE
US EXPORT COUNCIL PROVIDES ASSISTANCE TO US COMPANIES SEEKING ACCESS TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS OVERSEAS. http://usexportcouncil.com/
