Commerce secretary also to accompany President Obama during Beijing visit U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will be in Singapore and China the next six days, focused on an agenda that seeks to create jobs at home by making U.S. businesses more competitive in some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Locke will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meeting in Singapore through Sunday and then head to Beijing for three more days of events. He is part of an American APEC delegation that includes President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk. Energy Secretary Steven Chu will join the president, Locke, Clinton and Kirk in China.
While in Singapore Friday-Sunday, Locke will meet multilaterally and bilaterally with trade ministers from America's 20 APEC partner economies, as well as with American business leaders visiting Singapore this week for APEC events. He will also address AmCham Singapore and a group of University of Chicago Booth School of Business students.
In Beijing Monday-Wednesday, Locke will meet with his Chinese government counterparts and attend meetings with President Obama. Locke and Kirk will also address the Beijing AmCham.
APEC is an intergovernmental grouping that seeks to facilitate economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. Since its formation in 1989, APEC has grown to encompass 21 members spanning across four continents, and is representative of the most economically dynamic regions in the world, accounting for approximately 40 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of world GDP and 44 percent of world trade.
APEC nations account for 60 percent of all U.S. exports, which support nearly 4 million U.S. manufacturing jobs.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
