Oh, The Places We'll Go

by Liz Reilly

Now that the dust has settled from a historical election in US history, the TradeRoots team is back on the road, and continues its charge to canvass the country in an important way. While the political temperature on trade is still being tested, we are optimistic for an exciting and productive year for US manufacturing, farming, and services. In the previous administration, our country has made great progress to open up new markets in a bi-partisan way for US produced products, but there is still much more to be done. In the year ahead, TradeRoots will continue its mission to open markets as well as educate the business community on the countries that are already open and desperately searching for American made products.
  
The recent "One Voice for Trade" conference held by TradeRoots in Washington, DC, provided a thorough reflection on the accomplishments from the year, as well creating an agenda and plan for 2009. Conference participants represented over 20 states and included chambers of commerce, world trade centers, economic development, universities, and businesses. The conference theme included ways on how the business community can embrace a new political climate and continue to move the trade agenda forward. The discussion included ways to create strategic partnerships, engage new audiences, develop interactive media and messaging, and how to broaden international issues to cover a bigger competitiveness agenda.

As we look at what lies ahead, it is important to consider the focus of 2008. Last year was a year that heavily promoted the passage of Free Trade Agreements (FTA’s). We worked tirelessly to bring awareness to the business community on the pending agreements, which include Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. We made it to over 300 congressional districts around the US, and generated more than 5000 letters to members of Congress pledging support for their passage. Next year, TradeRoots will continue to highlight these agreements/markets, and bring their prospective Ambassadors and other high-level officials to cities across the US in order to maintain and expand grassroots support. These pending FTA countries are extremely important markets for US business, and their passage could create an enormous stimulating impact on our economy.  

In addition to promoting the FTA’s, we will be spending a lot of energy around the country talking about our most important and valuable trading partners, Mexico and Canada. In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was passed, and it has been a tremendously successful agreement for US business. Since its passage, over 40 million jobs have been created for the region, 12 million in the US. US exports to Canada increased 62%, and exports to Mexico increased 106%. These markets are the number one export market for 47 out of 50 of our states, and in some cases the only reason the economy is not in an even deeper financial crisis today.

Another vital market for the US is China, and in 2009 we will be continuing our “How to Do Business in China” series. We will be visiting over 10 cities and hopefully coming to a town near you – stay tuned. Many chambers of commerce and business across the country are taking trade missions to check-out this exciting market and make business connections. While we do not have an FTA with China, it is our 3rd biggest market for US exports, and with a population over 300 million, the demand for US goods is tremendous. China may have its challenges, which we will continue to address with the US Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC), but at the same time highlight the potential opportunities China can bring.