America’s Business rings in the New Year with several timely and interesting interviews.  Agriculture Secretary and former North Dakota Governor Ed Schafer joins host Mike Hambrick to talk about renewable fuels and alternative energy and what an important role they will play in the future.

“Well, I’m excited about alternative fuels,” Secretary Schafer says. “The bio-fuels, the bio-mass –  that is very important for us and it increases economic activity in rural areas like you can’t imagine.  And again, moves us towards that energy independence and it’s better for the environment.”

Atlantic Monthly international correspondent James Fallows, a frequent guest of the program, returns to talk about his most recent article, “Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money.” He’s referring to China, which holds $1.4 billion dollars of the U.S. debt.  This has invariably linked these two countries financially in more ways than expected.

Despite the tough recession, many American manufacturers are finding ways to survive and prosper. One such company is Ariens Corporation. Dan Ariens, President and CEO, is on the program this week to explain how they have been able to move ahead.

In October, President Bush signed the PRO-IP bill into law, a comprehensive intellectually property rights laws.  Passage was a big victory for the NAM, which led the charge to make intellectual property rights more secure for America’s innovators.  This week one of the bill’s fathers, Rick Cotton, General Counsel at NBC, is here to explain why this bill was a success and where improvements can still be made.

In our regular segments, Renee Giachino of American Justice Partnership gives us the latest on tort reform and commentator Hank Cox recalls “The Way It Was.” And the National Association of Manufacturers President Gov. John Engler will close the program with “The Last Word.”

From Agence France Presse, “Obama signals major shift in US trade policy“:

CHICAGO (AFP) — President-elect Barack Obama has signaled a major shift in US trade policy with a new emphasis on enforceable environmental and labor standards to prevent a “race to the bottom.”

But while these progressive policies may satisfy some critics, they could further complicate stalled WTO negotiations and serve as an excuse for greater protectionism as the United States slips deeper into its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

“The incoming president will face more political pressure for protectionism than any other US chief executive since 1930,” said outgoing US Under Secretary of Commerce Christopher Padilla.

“How president-elect Obama responds to this pressure will define the course of the global economy — and America’s economic identity — for a generation,” he said.

The AFP story notes the pending appointment of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, generally pro-trade but no trade expert, as U.S. Trade Representative.

Kirk was introduced last Friday along with U.S. Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), as the Labor Secretary in an Obama Administration. Solis has always voted in line with organized labor’s positions, which means opposition to free-trade agreements, that opposition often disguised by demands for labor and environmental add-ons to FTAs. You can read her official statements critical of trade from her House website, here and here. (Today’s Wall Street Journal editorializes on organized labor in political ascendance today in “Quantum of Solis,” highlighting labor’s goal of gutting the Department of Labor’s oversight and transparency programs.)

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer commented on nascent protectionism in an interview on this week’s “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick.” (Interview and highlights here.) Asked about anti-trade sentiment, the Secretary responded:

It’s a huge mistake. Protectionism at this point of time really has a long term effect of holding back your markets, of destroying your markets. We saw it happens in the ‘70s with the grain embargo. It was 10, 15 years before you got it back in shape after we kind of dissed the global marketplace. But the free flow of goods and services right now is what we need. We need opportunity. The American products, as far as quality and consistency, can compete with anybody, anyplace, and when we have opportunities, we simply make the sale. And so our efforts on trade, in my opinion, ought to increase, not decrease.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer appears on this week’s NAM radio program, “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick,” talking trade issues.

Some key excerpts:

Schafer on the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Korea, and his expectation that the first two will be voted on next year in Congress:

We have the votes in Congress to do so, but the leadership won’t let it on the floor to get those votes. So, that’s very disappointing. But I understand now, that come the new Congress here in January, that Colombia and Panama will be put on the floor. So I’ve been told.

Korea’s a little tougher one, that’s a very important market for us, a huge market for us, but there are some issues there that members of Congress are concerned about that they are looking into. But again, for the economic well-being of the United States of America, and for Korea, for the relationships between our countries socially and militarily, and importantly, for the opportunities for producers in both countries, Korea and the United States, that agreement should be signed.

Program host Mike Hambrick notes that other countries are still negotiating bilateral trade agreements, even as the United States sits on the sidelines and asks if that’s a concern. Schafer:

That IS a concern. Right now Colombia is building trading relationships with Australia, with Canada, who are offering competing products to ours. As you know how business works, is you develop relationships. Say we finally got around to ratifying our Colombian Free Trade Agreement a year from now, well, Colombia has already established relationships — shipping relationships, inspection relationships, company to company, banking relationships – with Canada, Australia, and now instead of being in an open free market, you’re competing to gain market share where it’s already been in place, and that’s a tougher prospect.

Secretary Schafer also talks about the threat of rising protectionist sentiment and the importance of a Doha Round of WTO negotiations.
 
You can listen to the full interview here. (7MB .mp3 file.)

The entire episode of “America’s Business” will be available later in the day at the program’s website and as a downloadable podcast.