President Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke, rolled out the administration’s new “National Export Initiative (NEI)” today at the National Press Club. The way Secretary Locke described it, the NEI sounds like a great vehicle to create jobs—government jobs. Secretary Locke began by saying that the “NEI represents the first time the United States...

Last week, Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke delivered a speech at the National Press Club titled “Back to Basics: A Blueprint for Exports-Driven Job Growth,” and remarked that “[President Obama’s National Export Initiative] will correct an economic blind spot that has allowed other countries to chip away at America’s international competitiveness.” The...

Red tape – rules, regulations, restrictions and mandates imposed on America – rose alarmingly in 2009, mirroring the overall decline in economic freedom in the United States, as reported in this year’s Index of Economic Freedom. That’s the conclusion of an upcoming Heritage Foundation report detailing trends in federal regulation. In fact, the cost of new...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) says“the American people need a message. The message that they need is that we are doing something on jobs.” Reid’s real message is to confirm what is now obvious to all, which is that he and his congressional allies have nary a clue as to how an economy creates jobs. In lieu of an ineffectual bi-partisan compromise bill...

William Rhodes, chairman of the U.S.-Korea Business Council and a senior vice chairman of Citigroup, published on op-ed piece on the KORUS FTA in today’s WSJA (in line with what we have been arguing). The piece was titled: “Mr. President, Enact This Trade Deal:” Implementing the free-trade agreement with South Korea would be an easy stimulus for the U.S. The...

The Obama Administration’s 2010 Trade Agenda, unveiled March 1, is a radical departure from traditional American economic policy and values. It abandons not just the 65 years of trade liberalization on which American and world economic prosperity has been built since the end of World War II, but attempts to turn the economic clock back to the 17th Century and the...

In a retaliatory response to the U.S. government’s unwillingness to eliminate domestic cotton subsidies, Brazil has announced higher tariffs on over 100 American goods ranging from cars to ketchup. Trade issues are central to the bilateral relationship between Brazil and the United States. Brazil is an attractive export destination for U.S. manufacturing, parts...