Letter from Secretary Brown - Ronald H. Brown - Transcript

Business America, Oct, 1994

Dear Mr. President and Mr. Speaker:

It is my pleasure to transmit the Second Annual Report on our National Export Strategy. Exports have become one of our most important jobcreating programs, putting trade at the center of our priorities at home and abroad. As a result, since the last Report, and under the leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, my colleagues and I in the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee have relentlessly pursued efforts to expand the U.S. presence in world markets.

It has been a busy and successful year.

The NAFTA was passed, leading to new markets to our North and our South. Six-month figures as of June 30, 1994, indicate U.S. exports to Mexico are up almost 17 percent and those to Canada are up nine percent.

At President Clinton's invitation, the 14 leaders of the Asia-Pacific region came to Seattle last fall to begin a new era of trade cooperation under the auspices of the APEC. The Asia-Pacific region includes the fastest growing regions of the globe and will be providing massive opportunities for American exporters.

Under Ambassador Kantor's direction, the United States successfully concluded the global trade negotiations known as the Uruguay Round, the most far-reaching trade-liberalizing agreement in history. This agreement will provide, over the next five years, the equivalent of a tax reduction (through tariff cuts) of $11 billion and an estimated job increase of about 500,000.

Trade and investment moved to the very top of our agenda with the former Soviet Union and is now crucial to propsects for peace in the Middle East and stability in South Africa.

Our trade relations with China -- the largest potential new market in the world -- were normalized and placed on a footing equivalent to those of other major trading partners.

There remain some difficult issues, of course -- such as the need to conclude genuine market opening agreements with Japan -- but we will continue to press ahead on behalf of U.S. commercial interests and job creation in the United States.

None of these events or agreements are ends in themselves. They simply provide our firms the opportunity to compete with others for foreign markets and the American jobs that follow.

The competition is fierce. Japanese companies are moving aggressively into East Asia, the world's most dynamic and fastest growing region. Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are mounting renewed export offensives. Countries from Brazil to South Korea and Taiwan are entering the world market as never before. However, Americans have never shied away from competition. American firms have the products, the technology, the quality, and the on-time delivery to compete. We need to make sure they have the opportunity to do so.

I see the future holding extraordinary opportunities for American firms and workers. By the year 2010, world imports of our trading partners are expected to exceed $5 trillion--an increase, in real terms, of more than $2 trillion over today's level. Some 4 billion new consumers will require the kinds of products the United States can supply. As I indicated in our report on America's competitive standing in the world economy issued last month, many American firms, having made dramatic changes in their organization, level of quality, and price structure, are competing more effectively than ever. They will profit from an economic climate at home characterized by steady growth, low inflation, and increasing investment. They will have the benefit of far-reaching policies established by the Administration to reduce our deficits, increase our investments in technology, and build a work force which will be ready for the competitive challenges of the 21st century.

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The National Export Strategy is a critical component of this Administration's competitiveness agenda. In our 1993 Report, we detailed over 60 action recommendations which, if taken, would constitute our nation's first comprehensive export strategy. The Report was deliberately called, "Toward A National Export Strategy" (italics added). It is my pleasure to say that we have made considerable progress on virtually all of the recommendations. We can now say that we have a strategy and that it is in full force. This current Report, therefore, both summarizes what we have accomplished and points to important new strategic directions for the future.

I am particularly proud of our advocacy of U.S. companies abroad, especially in their competition for foreign governmental procurement. We pledged at the outset of this Administration to give our companies the same level of support that our competitor nations have traditionally given their companies. And we have. This Administration's efforts have already assisted American firms with 70 major contracts amounting to over $17 billion in U.S. exports, including: a multi-billion dollar Saudi Arabian telecommunications procurement; a major contract to build an Indonesian power plant; and a variety of contracts in China worth several billion dollars.