Exports Help Generate Jobs

Jobs supported by exports pay 15 percent more than the national average.  In Iowa and nationwide, manufacturers, farmers and the service sector of the economy need new markets for their products.  It’s a matter of retaining and creating jobs here at home.

That’s why it’s been such a mistake to let three international trade agreements be sidelined for the last four years.  Final approval of these agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia is important for America’s economic recovery.  At long last, this week, the Senate Committee on Finance moved the legislation needed to implement the agreements.

Getting to a congressional vote has been a frustrating process.  All three trade agreements were signed during the Bush administration, but the Democrat-controlled Congress refused to consider them.  After President Obama took office, some parts of the agreements were renegotiated.  A year and a-half ago, President Obama said he wanted to double exports within the next five years.  Still, he let these three trade agreements languish.  This spring, the U.S. Trade Representative said the trade agreements were ready, but then the administration changed the terms and is insisting that the Trade Adjustment Assistance program, known as TAA, be passed with the trade agreements.

The $1 billion-a-year TAA program should be voted on separately, rather than used to bog down job-generating trade agreements.  TAA will be stronger for standing on its own, and the focus needs to stay on helping to spur manufacturing, services and agriculture-related jobs in the United States.

Significant economic opportunities are at stake.  By lowering or eliminating tariffs on almost all U.S. exports to the three countries, the agreements could increase U.S. exports by $13 billion a year and create tens of thousands of jobs.

Today, for example, U.S.-Colombia trade is a one-way street.  None of our ag products have duty-free access to the Colombian market, but more than 99 percent of Colombian ag exports enter the U.S. market duty-free.  With a trade agreement, Korea is expected to absorb five percent of total U.S. pork production.  The insurance and financial services industry in the United States, including Iowa, says Korea represents the largest insurance market yet in a free-trade agreement and presents enormous opportunities for domestic job growth.  Panama has tariffs on U.S. beef and corn that would go to zero under a trade agreement.  

I talked with an Iowa cattleman who took a trip to Korea within the last month promoting U.S. beef.  He said one of the things he took away from the trip was that Asia is watching how the United States handles these trade deals.  The question is whether the United States wants to keep its leadership role in international trade.  The assessment seemed to be that if the United States can’t get these three agreements finalized, then America’s trading partners will look to other nations for trade opportunities.

For the sake of U.S. exports and the American jobs they support, these trade agreements should be implemented without delay.

Friday, July 8, 2011