Commerce Secretary Gary Locke spoke at the PENN Fishing Tackle Manufacturing Company in Philadelphia Friday, promoting President Obama’s National Export Initiative meant to double exports within five years.

Locke’s focus at the event was government programs that offer technical assistance to companies that seek to export. For example, from his prepared remarks.

The NEI is going to provide even more resources and focus on the Commerce Department’s International Trade Administration (ITA)—which has a global network of trade specialists posted in 109 U.S. cities and at 128 U.S. embassies and consulates in 77 countries.

As part of the NEI, the president’s 2011 budget is going to provide new resources so that ITA can hire more trade specialists to help link U.S. businesses with buyers overseas.

ITA plans to bring on as many as 328 trade experts—mostly in foreign countries—to advocate and find customers for U.S. companies.

Good.

A disappointment: In his prepared remarks, Secretary Locke did NOT mention the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Korea or Panama. It’s next to impossible to double exports while ignoring FTAS. It’s a missed opportunity. Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) was in attendance, and as a consistent opponent of free trade agreements (the exception being U.S.-Peru), he’s the kind of member of Congress whom Administration officials should be working on. The same is true of Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), also in attendance, who voted AGAINST the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement.

P.S. The Administration has held many, many events in Philadelphia. The media seem to be wearying of them all. Searching via Google News and Bing, we find no coverage of Friday’s trade event other than media advances.

Vice President Joe Biden today issued the first annual report of the Middle Class Task Force, reaching the pre-ordained conclusion that the middle class needs more government programs and financial support.

The task force did spend a lot of time talking about the manufacturing sector, efforts recounted starting on page 13 of the report. Two of the task force’s meetings during the year emphasized manufacturing, the first in Perrysburg, Ohio, and then a White House meeting in December.

Looking ahead, the Vice President and Task Force intend to work with the agencies and with Senior Counselor Bloom to continue to promote the Administration’s manufacturing agenda. Policies in this space may include: export promotion, transitional assistance to supply chains (especially former auto suppliers), public/private partnerships (especially in green manufacturing), and continuing to build off of the ARRA investments noted above.

There’s much to welcome there policywise, and we’re glad to see export promotion head the list.

The Middle Class Task Force report also extensively promotes “green jobs” and the “green economy.” Coincidently, The Washington Post today runs an op-ed by Sunil Sharan, an expert in the “smart grid” and other clean-energy developments. Using the example of “smart meters” — the retail, consumer portion of smart grid technology — he concludes that the technological advances probably result in net job destruction. He concludes:

For the purpose of creating jobs, then, a “clean-energy economy” will not offer a panacea. This does not necessarily mean that America should not become green to alleviate climate change, to kick its addiction to foreign oil or to use energy sources more efficiently. But those who take great pains to tout the “job-creation potential” of the green space might just end up inducing labor pains all around.

From The Business Journals, “Business groups praise export plan, but want more,” in which the National Association of Manufacturers and other trade associations welcome the President’s plans for more export promotion and small business trade support. Excerpt:

“The U.S. export promotion program has been a shadow of what other countries do to support their exporters,” said Frank Vargo, vice president of international economic affairs for the National Association of Manufacturers.

But major policy changes will be needed to double U.S. exports in five years, Vargo said.

First, the Obama administration needs to get Congress to ratify pending trade agreements with Columbia, South Korea and Panama.

That “would lead to thousands of new manufacturing jobs,” Vargo said

See also our Feb. 4 news release, “NAM Welcomes Administration’s Goal of Doubling Exports.”

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke speaks at the National Press Club at noon today to flesh out the President’s State of the Union remarks calling for a doubling of U.S. exports within five years, a speech entitled, “”Back to Basics: A Blueprint for Exports-Driven Job Growth.”

AP reports:

The president’s National Export Initiative will target three key areas – expanding trade advocacy, improving access to credit especially for small and medium-sized businesses and rigorously enforcing international trade laws. The government-wide strategy will be coordinated at the cabinet level, Locke is set to tell a National Press Club audience.

“Increasing the export of American products and services to global markets can help revive the fortunes of U.S. companies, spur future economic growth and support jobs here at home,” Locke said in remarks prepared for delivery to a National Press Club audience. “This initiative will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed other countries to slowly chip away at the United States’ international competitiveness.”

The Washington Post on Wednesday carried an excellent column by C. Fred Bergsten of the international trade think tank, the Peterson Institute, outlining key strategies for achieving the export goal, “How best to boost U.S. exports.”

The AP story cites the National Association of Manufacturers commissioned study by the Milken Institute, “Jobs for America,” on the value of modernizing export controls. The analysis finds that export growth would boost real GDP by $64.2 billion (0.4 percent) relative to the baseline projection in 2019.

UPDATE (9 a.m.): Bloomberg reports:

The U.S. will provide $6 billion in export financing for small businesses and take a tougher line on foreign trade barriers as part of a bid to double exports, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is due to say in a speech today.

“While the U.S. is a major exporter, we are underperforming,” Locke will say at the National Press Club in Washington, according to excerpts released by the Commerce Department. The administration “is going to provide more funding for export promotion and more coordination between government agencies.”

NPR also had a reasonable, politically oriented story this morning, “Obama’s Efforts To Boost Exports Face Hurdles.”

Our Dispatch from the Front report on Monday noted U.S. Trade Representative’s conference Thursday, “Jobs on Main Street, Customers Around the World: A Positive Trade Agenda for US Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises,” but the event has so much good content for the manufacturing sector that it’s worth a separate plug.

Three board members from the National Association of Manufacturers are participating:

Chuck Wetherington of Hanover, MD, the President of BTE Technologies, is on a morning panel, “SME Export Successes and Major Policy Barriers.” The company manufactures  physical therapy, occupational therapy, and athletic training equipment.

Roy Paulson of Paulson Manufacturing, a manufacturer of protective equipment, and Drew Greenblatt of Marlin Steel Wire, which makes custom-engineered steel wire products, join an afternoon panel, “Key Issues in Export Promotion.”

Ambassador Ron Kirk and the rest of U.S. Trade Representative’s Office, as well as the Small Business Administration and the Department of Commerce have all put great energy into export promotion programs, and the conference for small and medium enterprises reaches out to companies that can do much more in the way of selling their products abroad.

At the same time, government promotion and financing packages will be hobbled if U.S. exporters face tariffs and other trade barriers our global competitors do not. Canada, the European Union and Asian countries are all moving forward with trade agreements that make their exports more affordable than U.S. products. 

If the goal is a “positive trade agenda,” then the Administration should also be pushing for Congressional enactment of pending U.S. trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

The testimony has been posted from yesterday’s Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing, “A World of Opportunity: Promoting Export Success for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses,” and the committee also has a nice selection of quotes here.

From Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who chaired the hearing by the Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion: “Exporting is literally a world of opportunity. Over 95 percent of the world’s customers are located outside the United States. Increasing our exports will mean more business, more jobs and more growth for the American economy.”

And from the manufacturer who testified, Tom J. Wollin, Director of International and Government Sales, Mattracks, Inc.,* of Karlstad, Minn.:

There are roadblocks for U.S. companies, big and small, when they export products internationally. Tariffs, duties, and value-added taxes can make the costs of U.S. products extremely prohibitive. For example, an American product that has a dealer cost of $35,000 when it leaves our shores can have a final cost reaching $60,000 to $70,000 when it reached its destination! U.S. innovation and product quality can overcome many obstacles, but a doubling in price can be crippling. The removal of these types of trade barriers are also needed to ensure new and continued sales growth internationally.

That’s a critical point. For all the many good and helpful government programs to promote manufacturing exports, sales must be cost-competitive. That’s why Congress’ resistance to enacting the pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea is so discouraging. By ratifying the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, for example, Congress could quickly lower costs of U.S. exports to that country by an average of 14 percent.

* A plug for Mattracks — What a great product! A “rubber-track conversion system [that ] transforms most 4×4 vehicles into a true all-terrain vehicle equipped with rubber tracks that will go almost anywhere and bring you back!”

Congress is not in session today so the schedule for committee hearings next week is already published here. Two we find of immediate interest.

• Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation: October 6, Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion, to hold hearings to examine promoting export success for small and medium-sized businesses, 2:30 p.m., SR-253.
• Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,October 9, Subcommittee on Economic Policy, to hold hearings to examine restoring credit to manufacturers, 9:30 a.m., SD-538.

A topic of much concern, the credit issue. From Bloomberg today, “Whitney Says U.S. Rebound Hampered by Small-Business Loan Curbs“:

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. recovery will falter as banks continue to curb lending to small companies, said Meredith Whitney, whose 2007 prediction that Citigroup Inc. would cut its dividend triggered a plunge in the bank’s stock.

“Access to credit is being denied at an accelerating pace,” Whitney said in a commentary in the Wall Street Journal. While large companies have no problem obtaining loans, small businesses “have never had a harder time,” she said in the article, dated yesterday.

The NAM’s Frank Vargo, vice president of international economic affairs, testified before a  House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Tuesday, “Stimulating the Economy through Trade: Examining the Role of Export Promotion.”

The Dow-Jones story highlighted Vargo’s comments, including, “We can either leave future export performance at chance, a residual result of other policies and actions, or we must have a national export expansion strategy designed to achieve a large and sustained increase in our exports.”

Vargo’s testimony is available here, and the NAM issued a news release, “NAM’s Vargo Tells House Trade Subcommittee United States is ‘Missing the Boat’ on Exports.”

Also testimony from:

Chairman Bobby Rush (D-IL) made an opening statement, available here.