Thank you. Good morning everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here. As Eric (Coleman, NACo President) mentioned, the Commerce Department has a broad portfolio. One of my predecessors called it the Noah’s ark of agencies. I prefer conglomerate.
Importantly, the over-arching goal of each Commerce unit is one we share with groups like NACo: promoting growth, opportunities and new American jobs.
Let me highlight a few of the ways that the Commerce Department is working with you and for your counties.
Our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is partnering with NACo on the Coastal Counties Restoration Initiative. There are more than 600 coastal counties in the United States.
Our Economic Development Administration works with counties to improve regional competitiveness in economically distressed areas.
Our Census Bureau is gearing up for the 2010 decennial with dress rehearsal sites in San Joaquin Country, California, and a nine-county area around Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Our Patent Office is working with Congress in support of a modernization plan that balances the interests of innovators across all industries.
Our National Telecommunications and Information Administration has a full court press going to alert everyone about the digital television transition.
As you may know, people with older analog TV sets, who get free programming through rabbit ears and outside antennas, have some decisions to make. And they need to act before full power stations end analog service on Feb. 17, 2009, as required by Congress.
Among their choices are purchasing a television with a digital tuner; subscribing to a cable, satellite or pay-tv service; or purchasing a digital converter box for their analog set. Coupons worth $40 toward the purchase of up to two converter boxes are being made available though our telecommunications agency at dtv2009.gov.
We’re working with partners in the public and private sector to get out the word. We don’t want anyone to lose their TV service. And we don’t want any of you to be awakened by a constituent on Feb. 18, 2009, because there’s no picture on the TV screen.
Our International Trade Administration has specialists in over 100 cities and more than 80 countries to help U.S. exporters find new markets. U.S. businesses, farmers and workers are finding new opportunities in global markets.
In 2006, seven metropolitan areas recorded product export sales of $25 billion or more. Thirty more posted export sales of between $5 billion and $24 billion. And 116 posted export sales of $1 billion or more.
Trade is an increasingly important part of our economy. It’s a key element of President Bush’s pro-growth agenda. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, it’s also the subject of some debate in Washington and throughout the country.
So I’d like to use the rest of our time together today to talk about trade. Trade was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the Commerce Department over 100 years ago.
Manufacturers were producing innovative products, and they wanted the same kind of help in finding and opening international markets that farmers were getting from the Agriculture Department.
American companies and workers have always relished competition. In 2007, they scored a record-breaking $1.6 trillion in goods and services exports, 12.2 percent over the record in 2006. This is more than any country at any time in history.
Trade was the source of 26 percent of GDP growth last year. It’s the second largest contributor to GDP growth after consumer spending.
And if we include the three pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, our FTA partner countries accounted for nearly 30 percent of export growth in 2007.
Exports support millions of U.S. jobs, which on average pay a higher wage than non-export related jobs.
2007 was the fourth consecutive year in which U.S. export growth exceeded 10 percent.
Is this really the time for a trade “time out?” Do we want to go into a holding pattern when the global market is expanding, and other countries are negotiating free trade agreements to get an edge? In 1930, Congress passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff to reduce imports and protect American businesses and jobs.
Imports were cut in half by 1933. But over that same three-year period, exports also fell by half, and unemployment skyrocketed to 25 percent.
The Smoot-Hawley trade barriers deepened and extended the Great Depression. A hard lesson was learned. We should never forget it. Protectionism doesn’t protect.
Now we’re hearing talk about quitting a free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, our neighbors, our friends and our allies.
The North American Free Trade Agreement links over 440 million people in an area that produces more than $16 trillion worth of goods and services.
Canada and Mexico are our first and second largest export markets. U.S. goods exports to the two countries last year totaled $385 billion.
During NAFTA’s first 14 years, GDP growth has been significant: Quitting NAFTA would destroy economies in U.S. border communities, hurt U.S. farmers, rip apart North American supply chains and information systems, devastate large and small exporters and cause incredible damage to the overall American economy.
The economic headwinds we now face are real. Yet the housing downturn, which has impacted our economy in the short-term, is unrelated to trade. In fact, international trade and America’s growing exports have helped offset the economic impacts of the housing downturn.
Clearly, many Americans are anxious over their jobs, their families and their futures. But our responses to economic anxieties must be thoughtful, responsible and smart.
Pretending we’re not part of North America is not a prescription for growth.
Trade is vital to the nation’s economic health. It drives growth, innovation, jobs, and higher standards of living.
We’ve already had the debate about closing vs. opening markets. American presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to George W. Bush have put their faith in free and fair trade.
America is not about retreating to the failed trade policies of the early 1930s. America is about competing and winning in the 21st century global marketplace.
At the end of the day, America is about giving every business, farmer, and worker in every county in this great country the opportunity to compete and succeed in domestic and world markets.
We look forward to working with NACo and all of the counties throughout the United States to keep America growing, prosperous and secure.
Thank you.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
