Trade Helps Create Jobs

It was good to see the administration pay attention to international trade policy this week, with the President presenting his trade agenda.  Creating new markets for exports from the United States is a major opportunity to create and sustain good-paying, private-sector jobs here in the United States.

Trade needs to be at the top of the priority list with other job creation efforts.  It cannot be neglected.

I made this point at the end of last year in a meeting with the President.  I did so again on Wednesday with the U.S. Trade Representative – Ambassador Kirk – during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee.

One of my big concerns with the President’s new trade agenda is that it doesn’t say anything about the need for prompt action on pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.  These agreements would be extremely beneficial to the United States.  It’s already been nearly three years since all of them were modified in an agreement between congressional Democrats and the Bush administration.  Continued delay hurts the United States economically and geopolitically.  While we sit on the sidelines, the world is moving forward without us, and we lose out.  South Korea now has a trade agreement with the European Union, and Colombia has just done the same.

The United States becomes less globally competitive by letting these opportunities to sell our exports languish.  There are bottom-line consequences for Iowa agriculture, manufacturing and the service industry, and for employers and businesses, big and small, across the country.

I know first-hand that Iowans understand the importance of trade.  Every other summer, I organize a week-long tour for ambassadors from around the world to promote trade relationships in Iowa.  The support from Iowa communities for this trade tour is tremendous, time after time, because of the significance of trade and exports to the strength of Iowa’s economy.

The trade agenda announced by the President this week also says we need to remain mindful of the needs of American workers who are displaced by trade, and I agree with him on that.  Last year, I co-authored a comprehensive overhaul and expansion of our trade adjustment assistance programs, and the bipartisan bill – the Trade and Globalization Adjustment Assistance Act of 2009 -- was passed by Congress and signed by the President.

I’ll stay on the administration to keep focused on international trade for job creation.  Trade can help reduce unemployment, and it can make our workforce in the United States more competitive in the global economy.