President Obama on the Importance of Int’l Trade

In a speech yesterday morning to the Export-Import Bank (an entity funded by the International Affairs Budget), President Obama talked about the importance of global trade to America’s economic well-being. “[T]o look out for our workers, we’ve got to be able to compete in the global marketplace,” he said. “I set a goal of doubling America’s exports over the next five years – an increase that will support 2 million American jobs.” A goal he had mentioned in his State of the Union Address, the President spoke about the reasoning behind his plan to double exports. “Our exports support millions of American jobs,” he said. “[E]very $1 billion increase in exports supports more than 6,000 additional jobs…So it’s critical in the short term, but it’s also critical for our long-term prosperity. Ninety-five percent of the world’s customers and the world’s fastest-growing markets are outside our borders. We need to compete for those customers because other nations are competing for them.” Indeed, today more than 1 in 5 U.S. jobs are tied to global trade — and the fastest growing markets for U.S. export are developing countries, totaling nearly half of U.S. exports.

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