From the Peoria Journal-Star:

PEORIA — President Barack Obama is tentatively scheduled to stop in the Peoria area and visit a Caterpillar Inc. facility while in central Illinois on Thursday.

While there’s been no official announcement from the White House about the visit, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told media members aboard Air Force One on Monday that Obama would stop in Peoria and visit a Caterpillar plant.

It would be the third visit in just more than two years by a sitting U.S. president, including the second one to Caterpillar. Former President George W. Bush visited a factory in East Peoria on Jan. 30, 2007, to give a speech about free trade.

Excellent decision, a stop at a manufacturer that has made cutbacks because of the global recession, including major declines in mining and construction around the world. Nevertheless, Caterpillar remains a case study of why exporting is good for the U.S. economy, and the company has been a strong advocate of free-trade agreements with countries like Peru, Colombia and Panama. The company has been a vocal opponent of “Buy Americans” restrictions in the stimulus bill that could — at least in an earlier form — spark a global wave of protectionism.

President Obama’s trip follows last Friday’s announcement that Caterpillar’s chairman and CEO, Jim Owens, will serve on the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.

In any case, glad to see that President Obama is making a manufacturer one of his early stops during his Administration. It’s definitely appreciated.

* An op-ed in the Chicago Tribune by Jim Owens, “Protection provisions could kill U.S. jobs”

A McClatchy newspapers’ story, “With U.S. economy stuck, economists look abroad for growth“:

WASHINGTON — As U.S. consumers stop spending and investors keep their money to themselves, government and business leaders hoping to get the country’s ailing economy moving again are playing one of their few remaining cards.

They’re trying to sell more U.S. goods overseas despite the decline of both global demand and U.S. competitiveness.

Exports currently make up about 13 percent of the country’s total economic activity, far less than the 70 percent taken up by production for domestic consumption. But that’s where economic growth can still happen, analysts say, especially as the domestic housing and credit crises promise to freeze spending at home for at least another year.

Economists and business leaders suggest the incoming Obama administration implement export-friendly measures such as streamlining U.S. customs operations, negotiating more free trade agreements and developing industries such as alternative energy that can become the next generation of U.S. economic powerhouses.

We see President-elect Obama is meeting with Mexico President Calderon today, and we trust the campaign malarky of renegotiating NAFTA has been shelved. Given the state of the economy, let’s shelve lots of the more burdensome, anti-competitive, economy-slowing policies that were bandied about during the Democratic primaries.

The New York Times suggests caution will, indeed, be the byword in the early days of the new Administration. From “Economy May Delay Work on Obama’s Campaign Pledges“:

Although Mr. Obama has not publicly identified which priorities will have to wait, advisers and allies have signaled that they may put off renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement, overhauling immigration laws, restricting carbon emissions, raising taxes on the wealthy and allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the military.

And the Employee Free Choice Act, too, right?

From The Washington Times:

Exports increased at their fastest pace in more than four years in June, helping to sharply narrow the U.S. trade deficit despite a record rise in America’s payments for imported oil.

AP report tells the same story, based on the U.S. Commerce figures released yesterday, which show a 17.4 percent increase in exports over the previous year.  Secretary Gutierrez’s statement.

And the NAM’s Frank Vargo calls the increase “phenomenal.” From the NAM statement:

“The performance of manufactured goods trade is so strong that it is a major offset to the rising deficit in petroleum,” said Vargo. “The U.S. appetite for imported petroleum remains huge and the deficit in petroleum now accounts for nearly two-thirds of the entire U.S. deficit in goods and services – underscoring the need for further development of domestic energy resources.”

Just think what expanded domestic oil production would mean for those trade figures.

NAM President John Engler stopped by a reporters’ briefing today to talk about the NAM’s new analysis that shows U.S. trade in manufactured goods is now in a surplus with its Free Trade Partners (see news release in the extended entry):

At a time when there is so much worrisome about the U.S. economy, this is bright spot we ought to be reinforcing. When you’ve a Congress that’s been willing to vote preferences for regions of the world for them to send their goods to us, I would hope that they would treat the U.S. based manufacturers as well as we’ve treated other people all over the globe, and let us send our goods out.

In this audio clip, Engler also discusses the difficulty that faces any Congressional attempt to enact the pending free trade agreements this year. In addition, he looks at problems the lack of trade promotion authority will pose for a new President, addressing the question: Given the House leadership’s decision to circumvent the rules of consideration and shelve the Colombia FTA, how can you ever enact a new PTA that can be effective? 

Engler also talks about the prospects of the next Doha ministerial meeting in Geneva. The NAM’s Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs, will be on hand.

Stories from today:

• VOA: WTO’s Lamy: Global Trade Deal Possible
• Reuters: WTO chief sees improved chance of trade deal
• SABC (South Africa:) Hope dims for Doha trade talks