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http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62A1JQ20100311
Obama taps Boeing, Xerox chiefs to
lead export body
President Barack
Obama, anxious to spur growth and tackle unemployment, will name two top
executives from Boeing and Xerox on Thursday to spearhead his drive to
boost U.S. exports, the White House said.Obama, who pledged in
his State of the Union address to double U.S. exports over five years to
support 2 million jobs, will make the announcement in Washington when
he speaks to the Export-Import Bank’s annual conference on his trade
strategy.A White House official said Obama would name Boeing Co
president and chief executive Jim McNerney and Xerox Co chief executive
Ursula Burns to lead the President’s Export Council.Founded in 1973 by
former President Richard Nixon, the council is a key forum for the
private sector to communicate its trade views to the U.S.
administration.Obama will also create a new Export Promotion
Cabinet, drawn from government departments including Treasury, State,
Commerce and Agriculture in support of his efforts, the White House
said.Trade is a central part of Obama’s drive of shift Americans away
from an over-reliance on borrowing and consumption, replacing those
sources of economic activity with investment and greater exports to the
rest of the world.Exports could help the United States recover from the
worst recession in 50 years, caused by the collapse of the country’s
housing market, and unemployment at a towering 9.7 percent.But
critics say Obama has not backed up his words with action to advance
free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea, and they
are skeptical that his top-down initiatives to lift exports will deliver
results.”Beyond another bureaucratic incarnation — in the form of a
new “Export Promotion Cabinet” — the details for achieving that growth
in exports are missing,” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said in
congressional testimony last week during hearings on Obama’s 2010 trade
agenda.Some members of Obama’s Democratic Party are hostile to
further trade deregulation and blame deals done in the past for costing
American jobs.Obama’s Thursday export speech will be followed on Monday
by the first round of talks on the Transpacific Partnership in
Melbourne. Obama has said the TPP will set the standard for future U.S.
trade deals, with greater protection for workers and the environment
than was previously the case.
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