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Jim McNerney: I would like to formally welcome everybody to this meeting of the
Export Council.
A lot has happened since we met on June 6th, and it's good to
see so many of you here as we gather our feet underneath us,
talk a little bit about what we've accomplished and what
challenges still lie in front of us, which will help us shape
the agenda for the next year and the next term.
But I think today we really only have one action item,
which is to approve our first term report.
I know there's a lot of materials you've taken
a look at.
The stoplight chart, the infamous stoplight chart.
The heavily vetted and discussed stoplight chart.
(laughter)
Which was, I think, I think was fairly honestly approached,
quite frankly, and I think we're going to hear some --
red is good when you really want to solve problems.
And there's some red on the chart, and that's good.
And that just lays it out what we have to do.
And the statutory thing we have to do is the implementation of
our 24 letters of recommendation, which have
already been written, already sent, but given the way
Washington works, we now have to approve them. Okay?
(laughter)
So we'll do that and we'll get a little bit into the challenges
that lie ahead.
But, listen, I'd like to just, we have some distinguished
regulars and some distinguished guests, and if there's any
comments -- and I'm going to go down a list of folks here,
starting with the Vice Chairman of the Export Council,
Ursula Burns.
Ursula, do you have any opening remarks?
Ursula Burns: Just briefly.
Thank you, Jim, for shepherding us through our first term.
It was, I think, useful.
We are holding this meeting at a critical
time for our economy, definitely.
We have a good opportunity to review the progress, as Jim
said, that we've made so far this year, and some of the
work that we have do in the next four years.
Significant progress was made not by any individual
constituency, but because we worked together.
We helped move along towards the goal that the President had laid
out for us.
We've made, we've increased exports across the board:
manufacturing, services, agriculture.
In fact, we're about halfway to the goal that the President laid
out of doubling exports in five years.
So it's pretty good work.
In particular, I'm pleased that the Senate today -- I hope it's
today or the next couple of days.
Jim McNerney: Maybe today. Maybe today.
Ursula Burns: I hope it's today.
I hope it's in the next couple of minutes.
Jim McNerney: Yeah.
Ursula Burns: We'll vote to pass PNTR for Russia, something that we've
been working on, something that we stressed the importance of at
the beginning of this PEC, and I think by working together not
only with people in this room but people outside of this room
as well, we'll probably be able to get that passed today,
in the next couple of minutes.
A couple of other few good examples.
The trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and my home of Panama
were signed, as well.
Go Panama.
(laughter)
There's still a lot to be done, though.
I mean, that's just a little bit of the work that we have to do.
We need to reform our tax regime, which is being worked
in and out of this room.
We need to complete and begin implementing the Trans-Pacific
Partnership Agreement, and we need to continue to work with
the U.S. government agencies to update some current export
promotion advocacy criteria that are increasingly out of
touch with the way that business is done around the world, and is
particularly important to a company like Xerox,
which is a services company.
And I look forward to actually another couple of years just
working on this and having some fun.
Jim McNerney: Great, Ursula, thank you, thank you very much.
Your leadership and contribution has been fantastic.
Secretary Blank, Commerce.
Secretary Rebecca Blank: Great. Thank you very much, Jim and Ursula, and thanks for
everything that you've done here on the PEC.
And thanks to everyone here on this committee, including
members of Congress.
Congratulations to Senator Stabenow on your re-election.
Ursula Burns: Yes, congratulations.
Secretary Rebecca Blank: I want to start the morning with what I consider to be
an exciting piece of news.
This morning the President issued an Executive Order --
I've actually got the text of it, if anyone wants to read it
-- establishing the Interagency Task Force on Commercial
Advocacy, led by the Commerce Department and
by our Advocacy Center.
I know a number of the companies here have used
the Advocacy Center.
Last year alone the Center helped U.S.
firms win about $87 billion in contracts, 85 percent of
which was export content.
And that's a substantial increase over what they
were doing in past years.
As you know, our exporters face increasingly tough competition
from major international public contracts.
And through this new task force we really want to bring the
resources and the engagement of over a dozen federal agencies.
The idea of the task force is for us to coordinate advocacy
across the federal government to help strengthen the playing
field for U.S. companies.
I think we've been doing a good job on that.
With this Executive Order and some of the abilities it gives
us to coordinate better, we're going to, I hope,
do an excellent job providing stronger commercial diplomacy,
better market intelligence, heightened visibility of new
opportunities, and better access to all the tools and resources
that agencies provide, including financing and
technical assistance.
Of course, this is part of our broader continued efforts under
the President's National Export Initiative.
As many of you know, exports have been leading the economic
recovery, growing faster than many other sectors.
Though they have slowed down a little bit, with the growth
slowdown in Europe and Asia, we are still on track to break a
record for U.S. exports this year, exceeding 2011's record
breaking 2.1 trillion.
So that will be good news.
All of us in the administration place a high value on the input
that we get from private sector leaders and PEC members who've
given us such great recommendations over
the last four years.
And let me just reflect a moment on how far we have come.
You have been champions of the NEI, helping us increase exports
by over a third from 2009 to 2011.
At our midway point we were right on target for that
doubling of exports, and supporting 1.2 million
export-related jobs along the way.
You have strongly supported and are working on letting U.S.
companies take advantage of the trade agreements in Korea,
Colombia, and Panama.
Thank you for all your work on the PNTR, let's keep our fingers
crossed for later today.
And you've really worked to help entrepreneurs and business
owners understand how they can use exports as a strategy to
grow their own jobs with the help of the federal government,
where we can be useful.
Perhaps most importantly, you've helped formulate some very
effective strategies that use a strategic and a data-driven
process to identify and analyze the markets and sectors where
the U.S. has or should have a competitive advantage.
So I specifically want to thank the Global Competitiveness
Subcommittee for identifying where public-private engagement
can make a big impact with measurable results.
On that note, I was in Africa last week promoting the trade
and investment goals of the U.S. strategy towards Sub-Saharan
Africa, which the President issued in June.
Sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to grow between 5 and 6 percent
in the coming years, faster than other parts of the world,
including the United States.
And six of the ten fastest-growing countries
in the world are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
So this is a region of the world with enormous potential
for export growth.
In Johannesburg I launched the Doing Business in South Africa
-- Doing Business in Africa Campaign, which is aimed at
involving more American investors and exporters
in the African market.
And in Nairobi I launched a commercial dialogue between
the United States and the five nations that represent the East
African community.
That commercial dialogue, among other things, is going to bring
private sector leaders into policy dialogues about the
key reforms that are needed to reduce trade barriers and
enhance the business environment in that area.
I've got to say a hello to Gary Loveman, who I last saw when he
was a graduate student at M.I.T. Hey, Gary.
It's good to see you.
(laughter)
Gary Loveman: Please point out that that was a number of years ago.
(laughter)
Secretary Rebecca Blank: You don't look a bit older.
U.S. businesses, I think, are very well positioned to meet
rising demand in Africa, as well as places like Turkey
and Poland, which are also places that I've visited
relatively recently.
We have competitive advantages across a number of industries,
and particularly in the infrastructure and the energy
areas, which are areas where many of these governments are
going to be investing very heavily in the decade ahead.
We also see strengths in manufacturing exports such as
cars and car parts, as well as service exports, such as travel
and tourism.
In fact we now expect 66 million international travelers to have
traveled to the U.S. in 2012, a six percent increase from
last year, and another all-time record.
Looking forward, we need to continue our work to expand the
base of small and medium-sized businesses who export.
Their share of U.S. government has grown --
U.S. exports has grown from about one-fourth at the turn
of the century, to one-third today.
For instance, one goal of the Doing Business in Africa
Campaign is to encourage small businesses in the African
diaspora communities in the United States to consider
exporting back to Africa.
We also need to train more of our business counselors in
exporting, as the SBA is doing, and we need to expand export
financing to small exporters, as the Ex-Im Bank is doing.
In addition, we want to build on the fact that about 150 U.S.
metro areas exported more than a billion dollars in merchandise
last year, and we've partnered with the Brookings Institution
on the Metropolitan Export Initiative, and I believe
everyone here has a copy of the ten-step guide that we've
created on how communities, metropolitan areas, can create
actionable export plans, become centers of export growth.
And feel free to share that or ask for more copies.
And I'm particularly glad to see we have advocates for this
approach from the NGA and the Conference of Mayors, and thanks
to Mayor Alvin Brown, who I know has been involved with this one.
So at this moment, when many other countries are experiencing
slower growth, we actually have to be redoubling our efforts to
meet the NEI goals and to create even more good export-driven
jobs here at home.
We've passed the halfway point on the NEI, we need to focus to
make sure that the next two years are just as successful,
and we are very much looking forward to the advice and the
recommendations and the work that we will do jointly with
the PEC to make that happen.
So thanks again to all of you for what you have done,
and thanks in advance for what you are going to do.
As we say at the Department of Commerce, our goal is to build
it here and sell it everywhere, and with your help --
(laughter)
We can make that happen.
So, thank you.
Jim McNerney: Thank you. Thank you very much.
I think those comments provide a nice framework for the agenda
we're going to be laying out over the next quarter.
Secretary Rebecca Blank: Yeah, yeah.
Jim McNerney: So I really appreciate that, and I picked up a challenge
or two in there, and that we're going to have to respond to.
Secretary Rebecca Blank: Yeah, a few.
Jim McNerney: So Mike Froman is with us again today.
Michael, do you have any comments you'd like to make?
Michael Froman: Thanks, Jim.
And just to build on what Secretary Blank has said,
with regard to the trade agenda, we expect the PNTR
vote to happen midday today, and we're very optimistic about that.
Meantime, as we speak in Auckland, New Zealand, the 15th
round of negotiations are happening on the Trans-Pacific
Partnership, and when the President was in Phnom Penh
a couple weeks ago he convened the seven Asian leaders of TPP,
who happened to be there, and he had a very good meeting
with them, a very good conversation, where he
said this ought to be the beginning of the end game.
And it's time to start getting rid of some of the less
important issues, figuring out what each other's red lines are,
cutting the deals, and getting this done next year.
And there was a lot of enthusiasm for that.
And so we're putting a lot of effort behind that USTRS, and
with the goal, of course, of achieving a high standard,
high ambition agreement.
He underscored that as well with the other leaders, and there was
widespread agreement that that remains the objective.
Canada and Mexico are attending the negotiations
for the first time.
While we were in Thailand the Thai Prime Minister announced
that they would potentially like to join TPP at some point,
although it will be some period of time before they're ready.
And of course, Japan continues to have a debate in its country
about whether it should join or not.
On the Trans-Atlantic front, the high-level working group
is continuing its work to see whether there's a comprehensive
free trade type agreement that could be done between ourselves
and the EU.
And all I'd say about that is the reason we don't have a free
trade agreement with the EU isn't because no one ever
thought of one, it's because there are difficult issues that
have always gotten in our way.
And this process we're going through now is to try and get
those issues on the table and see if collectively we think
the political will is there to resolve them.
Maybe because of what's going on in Europe and their need for
growth, and their lack of other tools, we think there might be
the political support for dealing with some of the issues
that have tripped us up before, including in the agricultural
area, and we hope that that will be the case.
In Geneva there's been some good progress.
As we've turned the page on Doha, there's some services
and trade facilitation and ITA expansion.
And just yesterday, USTR signed three agreements with Morocco as
part of our outreach to the Arab Spring countries, to try and get
them more integrated into the international economic system.
So we're making progress on a lot of those fronts.
Let me just mention one other thing, if I can.
The President launched the Export Promotion Cabinet last
year, and asked us in the absence of legislative authority
to actually consolidate trade agencies, to do everything we
could to better coordinate our efforts.
And there's been a very robust interagency effort with a lot
of the people around the table representing their agencies
there, focusing on how to expand small, medium-sized enterprise
exporters, and how to make sure our domestic and international
footprint was organized in such a way as to maximize impact and
provide services in as customer friendly a way as possible to
potential exporters.
I'll just give you a couple of examples.
An interagency group has gotten together, looked at our foreign
and commercial service platform, our FAS platform, the economic
officers at the State Department have come up with new priority
countries to focus on, new business models for sharing
resources, and recognizing we're all under limited budget
environments, how to make sure we're using all of
our resources very well.
And on the domestic side we now have a protocol between Commerce
and Agriculture and the other agencies about how to treat
customers that come in wanting to export, how to make sure we
can have one-stop shops both virtually and in our physical
distribution systems, and how to train people.
If you're an FCS officer, how to train them in the other parts of
the government, what SBA can offer, what Ex-Im can offer
as part of their effort.
Last thing I'd mention, two things.
One on export controls.
We've published three new rules in the last week, and we expect
by February to begin to move over literally thousands of
items from the munitions list to the commerce control list.
It's been a long process for the last three years to get
to that point.
And finally, enforcement remains very much central in our overall
efforts, trade enforcement.
And as we speak, we've just asked for a panel, the WTO
against Argentina for its import licensing practices, and we'll
be working to make sure that along with Mexico, the EU and
Japan, we bring a strong case against Argentina for
those practices.
Jim McNerney: Mike, thank you. Thank you very much.
We have Gene Sperling with us here today,
and Gene, would you care to make a few comments?
Gene Sperling: Sure. I think you've already heard a pretty good summary on
the export and trade situation.
I just, you know, make the following kind of connecting
what some of you are spending your time on
here on fiscal cliffing.
(laughter)
With this, which is to say, you know, we obviously in terms of
our export agenda, there's the policies that we take and then
there's the degree of growth we have in our
main trading partners.
We, of course, work as well as we can, often very behind the
scenes, to try to speed up the process of reform in Europe,
obviously because we understand that connection.
In terms of China, it's harder to read.
I rely on more on you, Andrew was in the "Wall Street Journal"
yesterday, having been a bit dark earlier on China, feeling,
see a little pickup according to there.
So, you know, we're always a little bit at the mercy
of just what is the general demand there.
I think the -- and I think that in a situation where you cannot
count on as robust growth as you'd like, I think that just
emphasizes why on the policy side the terms of all the
specific things that Mike, everybody here has talked about
become all the more important that you have to pick that up.
But, I do have to say, in fairness,
we have lived through two years in a row where the U.S.
economy was looking kind of stronger in January and
February, and problems in the rest of the world helped break
our hearts, either through higher gas prices because
of the Mideast turmoil, or more volatility and financial
troubles in Europe that were difficult.
I think the rest of the world probably would kind of say the
situation's flipped a little, in that if we're worried about
their growth, the best thing we could do is have
a strong U.S. economy.
And I think, you know, I think the eyes are on us, and I think,
you know, I feel that sense of responsibility that what happens
with us policy choice, you know, as depressing as it is to see
Europe at times move too slowly, too cautiously in ways that then
rebound to hurt us, we have to make sure at this point we don't
do the same to the rest of the world.
And I think one thing that so many of the CEO's here have said
in the different meetings we've had, and I think it shares, the
view Catherine and others, we have, is that right now the
market expectation, the global market expectation for us is
like, you know, C plus B minus, depending on your degree of
grade inflation.
(laughter)
Meaning that I don't think the world has priced in us going
over the cliff, but they haven't priced in also us decisively
breaking this fiscal dysfunction.
So we are in the nice situation where we have potential upside.
In 2010, one of the nice things that happened was that people
did not expect that we'd come to an agreement where we'd extend
everyone's taxes, and that we would use that as a leverage to
extend low income taxes, get the payroll tax cut, get the UI and,
you know, it was really something.
After that budget agreement across the world, projections
for U.S. growth went up .5 to .6.
That's really something to have a policy moment where it changes
the entire projection of U.S.
growth by, you know, half, sometimes a full point.
Here I think it's less that there's going to be that big
kind of demand breakthrough, though we would like to get
some demand in for 2013, as much as the fact that so many people
have cash on the sidelines, are on hold, have been in lockdown
for several months.
And if we were to surprise the world by not only not going over
the cliff, but for them to actually see President Obama
and Speaker Boehner with an agreement, that I think what
will decide it is less how huge it is and more of the sense that
we've broken our dysfunction.
You know, we didn't cure the deficit in one agreement in '93,
but then markets reacted a lot to their sense of whether they
thought the parties were going to work together to solve it,
and so I think we have a very positive moment that we can,
that we can try to solve.
I also believe that there is upside on the housing
side as well.
And oddly enough, I do believe strengthening our economy will
-- obviously you can say, well, that's going to just strengthen
imports coming in, but I think we all know it doesn't
work that way.
When we're strong everyone's a little stronger, and I think
that will help on the exports.
The analogy I often use to the way the world looks at us
sometimes is that when you're a kid and you're fighting in the
back seat with your brothers and sisters, you really think
that your parents care who's right or wrong.
(laughter)
And if you could just get your case out a little better,
they'd be with you.
(laughter)
And then when you're a parent you realize that when you were
a kid like they just wanted you to be quiet and get along.
And I think there's a certain degree that the rest of the
world would just like to see us get along.
I've never seen so little asks from the different parties of
we want Medicare this or rates this or anything that, as much
as just can't you guys just get along in the back seat.
So it's tough.
It is hard, but we are really trying to get there.
You heard Tim say we would be willing to go
over the fiscal cliff.
That's saying that we obviously can't take the worst deal, that
we've got to obviously fight for a good deal, and so you do
have to be willing to let a terrible thing happen.
But that's not the goal, that's not the aspiration.
Everything we're doing is strategizing, and I think
that is not going to be just good for imports, I think it's
going to have a larger impact on 2013 globally, which will be big
for exports as well.
Jim McNerney: You and Larry Summers figure out how to make very fundamental
points in very clear ways.
(laughter)
In very different ways.
(laughter)
That was good.
Since it's such a topical subject and since Gene is right
in the middle of this right now and has been very constructive,
any questions from anybody on that or is it all so much out
there that I think we're up to speed?
Scott Davis: Jim, I might ask a question, just on global trade.
Jim McNerney: Sure.
Scott Davis: I'm with UPS, and I have to explain what's going on in
exports all the time.
The last two quarters, global trade has lagged
the global economy.
I think that's probably the second time since 1982.
And I keep getting asked why, and I don't have a really good
answer on that.
Can you help me?
(laughter)
Jim McNerney: Inventories. Inventories, Gene.
Gene Sperling: Maybe, maybe.
I'd rather give you a thoughtful answer later than a wrong answer
off the cuff.
Jim McNerney: It is a tough one.
Senator Stabenow, do you have a comment or two for us?
Senator Stabenow: Well, good morning.
It's great to be back with you, and I first want to just thank
all of you for your hard work.
This is so important, and Jim and Ursula, for your leadership
in the last year.
We -- a couple of comments.
I have to start with as Chair of the Agriculture Committee
and just say that we decided, we figured out a way, Gene,
how to get everybody in the back seat on agriculture to be quiet
and to come together.
And I just want to say that as we focus on what needs to happen
related to deficit reduction and the fiscal cliff, the only thing
that has passed the Senate in the last year with deficit
reduction that's bipartisan is our Farm Bill.
So just for every administration person in the room, as we go to
this package, we are ready, willing and able to put forward
and be part of the --
A Speaker: That is so amazing that you just volunteered to cut the deal with
Eric Cantor and Boehner.
It's such an enormous public service on your part.
Senator Stabenow: I know, I know. I'm volunteering, I'm volunteering.
You let the four ag leaders in the room, the deal is done.
I mean, I'll just tell you right now.
At least we have a piece of deficit reduction that we are
more than willing to put in front of us.
And also with my ag hat on, let me just say, we all know this,
but we are number one in the world in terms
of agricultural exports.
So this is a very important part of our export, and we do have a
five-year Farm Bill pending that is bipartisan with deficit
reduction that does have important trade support
efforts in it.
And so that's the important part of moving forward on
trade as well.
We do go back today by noon, in fact, I apologize for having to
leave in just a bit, because we do have Russia PNTR that
is coming up for debate very shortly.
We will have a vote at noon.
We fully expect that this will pass.
We've been working closely with the House to have a bill that
would not need to go back and forth.
Essentially the bill that came from the House now will -- is
the bill that will pass the Senate.
I do want to thank those involved in trade enforcement
efforts: Ron, Kirk, and Mike, because we want to make sure
when the doors are open they're open for our businesses, it's a
level playing field, and there's important trade enforcement
provisions in this PNTR.
So I think that's important as part of it.
And it was a real priority for me as well.
So we are going to get that done.
Earlier this year with a lot of challenges, it seems everything
has a lot of challenges, we did get Ex-Im Bank reauthorization.
Brad, we did get that, as you know.
(applause)
And with a lot of effort.
And I want to thank Chairman Hochberg for bringing an office
to Detroit.
We're excited about that.
And I know Andrew is as well, Andrew Liveris, and all of our
Michigan businesses, that we will have a bank there.
And I want to thank both SBA and Export-Import Bank for focusing
on small business in that context.
So thank you very, very much for doing that as well.
And finally, let me just say that from my perspective -- and
I know you share this -- but in coming from Michigan where we
make things and grow things, I don't think you have an economy
unless you make things, grow things, and ship things.
And so in that context next year as we go into tax reform, as we
go into larger policy, I look forward to working with all of
you to make sure that we continue in America to make
things here, as well as grow things here, and then ship them.
And that's how we're going to continue to grow the economy.
So thank you all for your hard work.
Jim McNerney: Thank you for your leadership, Senator,
and thanks for coming today.
I know it's a tough schedule.
Senator Brown.
I think you were going to make a comment.
Senator Sherrod Brown: Yeah, thank you, Chairman, and Vice Chair Burns, thank you.
My mother always thought that I was right when I
was in the back seat.
(laughter)
I do remember some of you are old enough to remember this.
I'm sorry I'm telling this story, but I couldn't just --
Trish and I were noticing that six people wrote down that,
and we're all going to take credit for this back seat,
we're not giving any footnotes to Sperling for coming up with that.
But I remember, those of you, some of you are old enough to
remember this.
When seat belts came in my parents, we were going to the,
from Ohio, where I grew up and still live to New Jersey, to
Ocean City or some place where we go every year, and they,
they got a seat belt fitted in the back seat.
You could get it, but it was one seat belt across the whole
back seat, and there were three brothers.
I was the youngest, and my mother always thought
I was right.
And it was not a very easy trip to -- before the interstates
were completed, in our part of the country, anyway.
(laughter)
But thanks for what this organization does.
I come from a manufacturing state, as Senator Stabenow does,
and we're also an ag state and many other things, and our
unemployment rate around the time of the auto rescue was
over 10 and a half percent.
It most recently was 6.9 percent as of last month.
And part, you know, part of that is the work that you all
do in exporting.
We've seen -- part of it was auto rescue, part of it,
Ambassador Kirk, is trade enforcement.
We've seen some direct outcomes with ITC and Commerce
Department, Secretary Blank on steel, there's a new steel mill
in Youngstown.
There are -- aluminum trade enforcement, tire trade
enforcement is directly translated into jobs.
And that really speaks to what Senator Stabenow said about the
Russian PNTR.
I'm supporting it today, I spoke on the floor yesterday.
In part because we are doing enforcement more proactively
in Russia PNTR, Michael has been very much a part of this,
than this we did with China.
We know what happened with China and the rule of law, the
difficulty, whether you're shipping or whether you're a
manufacturer or whether you're competing with Chinese exports,
how difficult it's been to enforce trade law sort of
retroactively with China.
The damage, particularly to our small businesses, and I
appreciate the efforts of this, even though many of you are
large companies, the interest of this Council
on small business exporting.
And they need the partnership of the federal government, and
Ex-Im Bank and all in doing this, and how important that is.
But, you know, so many small businesses, so much damage is
done to them by unfair trade practices when other countries,
primarily China, but other countries, don't follow the
rule of law.
And by the time we can respond on their behalf in partnership,
whether it's ITC or Department of Commerce, the damage is too,
has already been too much inflicted on those companies
and those workers.
So Russia PNTR, we are writing it in a way that gives us the
ability with Russian speakers in Russia to monitor this as
trade goes forward.
So that's going to make all the difference in the world.
Senator Stabenow and I worked on legislation on this, much of
this is now part of PNTR, and we got some assistance, a good
letter from the U.S. trade rep from Ambassador Kirk,
and that will help us move forward on that.
So thanks for that.
We'll continue to work together, and call on any of us in the
House or Senate.
Jim McNerney: Thank you, Senator Brown.
I particularly appreciate your comments on small business,
because I think when you look at the stoplight chart, probably
the most progress of anything that we've done, but also with
even more to go.
And so, you know, Gene and Mary and Fred have really led the
charge for this group, and a lot more work to do, but a lot done.
So your recognition is very important.
We appreciate that very much.
Mayor Brown, who I just met, from Jacksonville.
Mayor Brown: Yes.
Jim McNerney: The good City of Jacksonville.
Please offer some comments.
Mayor Alvin Brown: Thank you.
I want to thank you for this opportunity, and thank you and
the Council for their leadership.
The Council is greatly appreciated by the U.S.
Conference of Mayors, and we are grateful to President Obama.
As you know, Mayor Nunn made this one of his top priorities.
He would love to be here, but he is literally coming back from a
trade mission from China.
So he would have been happy to be here.
As Chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Exports/Imports Task Force,
we've been focusing on some of the things you talked about.
Really being strategic in helping small business get
access and really expand their business in the marketplace to
be able to compete.
But we also focused on working with Congress, encouraging them
to invest in ports around the country, and making sure we
modernize our ports so that we can improve the costs and
efficiency of moving goods, which is very important.
But the other thing I want to mention is the fear factor of
small businesses.
And I think Fred and others know this.
That they have a fear factor in terms of exporting.
They don't have the resources, they don't have the expertise,
and they don't have the deep pocket.
And so that's one thing we're focusing on as a conference, but
we're pleased with all the help we're receiving from the federal
government and the tools that you're providing for small
business, which is very, very important.
The other point is mayors are increasingly becoming involved
in education.
We know that we have to do a better job focusing on math
and science and technology, to be able to compete in the
marketplace and have a skilled workforce.
I know in Jacksonville, I want to thank this administration for
supporting what we're doing through a public-private
partnership with CSX, the Department of Transportation,
Secretary Ray LaHood.
We got a $10 million TAGA grant; our port is a $19 billion
economic engine in Jacksonville.
It's responsible for 65,000 jobs.
So it's, you're talking about growth, you want to really put
people back to work, I'd say focus on the ports and help
small business.
My last point is this: I think there's no way we can solve any
of these problems if we don't work together.
Public-private sector partnership, that's what
we believe in as mayors.
We know that the private sector is the engine of any community,
and we're focused on it like a laser.
Our conference this year is going to be from January 17th
to the 19th here in D.C, and the mayors will be talking about
these issues.
But I want to thank the administration, I want to
thank Karen and Fred and others who have been really focused on
this like a laser, to really support small business,
because they are the backbone of our economy.
Jim McNerney: You know, I think, you know, I really appreciate that report.
I mean, one of the themes of last year has been to reach out
to mayors and governors and connect them to our efforts.
And you're a living, breathing example of that,
and so is your city.
So I appreciate your comments.
And I appreciate the transition to Administrator Mills, who
probably has had as much to do with small business making it in
all kinds of ways, including exports, as anybody.
Do you have any comments, Karen?
Administrator Karen Mills: Yes. Thank you, Jim, and thanks to everybody in this group who's
really worked so hard to make these export goals, particularly
for small business, gain the momentum that it has.
As Becky said earlier, it's about 30 percent, and it's
the fastest growing piece.
We have realized a number of things.
And I really want to underline what Mike
Froman talked about earlier.
We have pulled together an Export Cabinet, and that Export
Cabinet has developed together a plan.
And there's sort of two noteworthy things.
One thing the President has said and done from the beginning is
say this is not about silo's, everybody has to be coordinated,
everybody has to work together.
And in the absence of actually a reorganization, let's just act
as if we are completely coordinated.
This export plan that we pulled together really underlined the
fact that this is a ground game.
On the small and medium-sized business aspects, everybody has
to be working with small business, one on one,
in a coordinated way.
The STEP grants that Congress gave us in the Small Business
Jobs Act proved to be very, very influential.
This was $60 million over two years that went to state
international trade offices and allowed a coordination on the
ground between the Commerce forces, the SBA activity,
the Ex-Im Bank activities.
We are developing joint financing programs.
We are dealing with the fear factor because many of these
small businesses, they don't know where to go, they don't
know how to do it, and they're afraid they won't get paid.
So we have now quite a robust, on-the-ground set of activities,
and we are starting to see in the numbers the results
of what we call this coordinated ecosystem.
We'll come back to it later, the details of it, but we did
put together a little dashboard addendum to the stoplight chart,
which details what what's happening on the ground to
actually influence results, like many, many more trade missions,
gold key missions, real companies going abroad,
seeing business opportunities.
The second piece I want to make sure everyone knows about is an
announcement that we made about three weeks ago.
Tom Nides and Secretary Clinton and the State Department and the
SBA have partnered to work very *** what we call
economic statecraft.
And the fact is that many, many countries, we have
about 150 delegations a year who come to the SBA and they
want to copy our programs.
They want to copy the government contracting and the financing,
and also the counseling programs, all around the world.
Now, that indicates that we have a big role to play in helping
people develop these entrepreneurial networks,
these small business robust activities, because we know
they lead to a good middle class, a strong middle class,
and stronger activities in these countries.
So we have partnered with the State Department to make sure
that the economic folks, the diplomats in each of
the countries know all the tools that we can,
that we use effectively here.
One of the things that Tom Nides has said is this is very, very
likely to create more export opportunities, because as you
get more small businesses in those countries connected to
our methods and to our small businesses, you will end up
having more of these export activities.
So we are very, very pleased about working on economic
statecraft with the State Department, and we think it will
have many residual benefits, including in this diaspora
activity that we're also focused on.
Jim McNerney: Thank you very much, Karen, appreciate the effort and
the energy, it's making a difference.
We have mentioned the stoplight chart a couple of times here,
and just to remind you what it is, this is,
like all stoplight charts in all organizations,
heavily discussed, matrix elements.
In my company we'd debate forever before a stoplight
chart would be issued.
In this case it's a team effort between the administration and
the staff for this group, and actually, this, this evaluation
went a little more seamlessly than normal.
But that's how it was produced, and I thought -- Ursula and I
discussed this after we reviewed it and thought it might be good
to have the committee chairs and the subcommittee chairs in some
cases for the five major groupings of the stoplight
chart to make a few comments, both about
progress and challenges ahead.
But Secretary Blank, do you have any comments before we jump into
it or should we just jump into it?
Secretary Rebecca Blank: I just wanted to thank the ex officio members of the Council
and their staffs for all the work that they've put into this,
and the Executive Secretary who coordinated that effort,
it does always take time.
But as you noted, it's really the red areas here that I hope
we'll focus on in the next several years to say what
should we be doing.
Jim McNerney: Or move the goal posts on the green ones so that we've got
more to do.
(laughter)
Secretary Rebecca Blank: That's true. Turn them red.
Ursula Burns: That's true, that's the way actually -- (laughter)
Create more red.
Jim McNerney: Yeah. Yeah, I've heard that one before.
Gene, would you start?
And then Andrew, have Gene go first and then move on to you,
if that's okay.
Gene and Mary and some others want to make comments.
Gene: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good morning everyone.
It has been a thought-provoking conversation so far this morning
regarding small business.
I think it's been very interesting, especially
since I chaired the SME committee.
With regards to the stoplight, I think that the, we made
substantial progress, and we're almost green all the way.
We have to have a little yellow, but we'll take care of that the
next time around.
(laughter)
I believe that there's still work to be done, and it's
important that we keep in mind that SME's make up 98 percent
of the firms exporting goods, 33 percent of exporting value,
and 64 percent of new private sector jobs.
So that's why it's important that we
have this kind of conversation.
We have learned that fewer than 500,000 SME firms are
exporting currently.
However, that number barely grew in the prior decade.
That's why President Obama and the PEC goal to double exports
with particular focus and care being given to SME's is vital
to our economic future.
We have done six SME regional round tables and we have
submitted 16 recommendations.
I'm pleased to say that the outstanding participation by
Commerce, SBA, Ex-Im Bank, the Labor Department, have all put
us in a position to make some real progress toward meeting
the goals of the President.
We recognize that Administrator Mills and Chairman Hochberg have
instituted real benchmarking.
They've launched new and effective loan products.
The SBA recently announced that they have a new program called
the Supplier Connection.
It is a new public-private partnership between SBA
and 17 of the world's largest corporations set up to take
advantage and include small businesses in their supply
chain, which is very commendable.
That's very commendable.
However, I think that, of course, most important, the
outreach that has been done so far has been very commendable,
but we need to find a way to make sure that we
institutionalize the outreach.
That we do not reach a goal of 2,000 or 4,000, which is a very
good number, you know, looking at historical data, but if we do
not have an institutionalized process for continuation of
outreach, then somewhere the next party or agency will --
it will fall off their radar.
So I think that's why it's important that this becomes
sort of an infrastructure kind of deal, not a one-time shot for
continued outreach.
Because one of the things that we recommended earlier was the,
to identify the top ten minority cities in the country,
and go after those cities.
I don't think -- I do believe that we have a lot of work to do
in that area, and I think that there should be some outreach
focused in that area as well.
But again, my focus is to make sure that we can get this sort
of institutionalized.
We have another round table scheduled sometime in February
or March, I believe.
Gary Loveman, I think, is going to host us out in Las Vegas.
And what we've decided -- a lot of people say why do you
go to Las Vegas, right?
But we did some research.
We did some research, and we looked at several untapped
sectors such as rare minerals, mining, clean tech, and
entertainment that thrive in this region and need attention
to garner growth.
So that's one of the reasons why we want to take a look at that.
And Mary, do you have any comments?
Mary -- Thanks, Gene, and I agree with you it's been a great
discussion and input so far this morning.
I just want to add that one other thing which the committee
continues to discuss is intellectual property.
That continues to be one of those areas that is a bit of
a barrier or I think fits the fear factor
that we talked about earlier.
Fear of losing IP or fear of the costs that are associated with
filing, maintaining, et cetera.
So our committee has also had talk about that there's still
room for additional support in this area.
And I also, it's been said several times already, but
really want to applaud the efforts of the administration
in dealing with some of these working capital and finance
barriers for small businesses to export.
So whether it's Ex-Im, SBA, USDA, just helping the private
sector revamp and grow new programs is fantastic.
And just finishing my two years as Chair of the National
Association of Manufacturers, it's been great to work with
Chairman Hochberg on some programs to try to get Ex-Im
connected more with some of the small manufacturers, and again,
helping to get them from only exporting maybe to one country
to moving on to other countries as well.
And just lastly, I really appreciate the fact that being
an Iowan, Des Moines's in the second tier of MEI cities, and
we're starting to work the plan, and that will be ready in April.
And I think for all of us as we have the ability to work with
some of those programs maybe more in local areas,
it is not only having a plan, but how do we execute it.
And we can have more growth with small businesses in those metro
areas, but we have got to make sure it is not just a plan.
It really gets disseminated, and worked.
And if there are barriers, those of us who are involved in the
export council, let's help break down those barriers.
So I also just want to say that we have got a fantastic staff
group supporting this committee and I certainly want to
recognize all of their efforts.
Jim McNerney: Thank you, Mary.
I mean, I think you and Gene have provided great leadership
here and we are looking forward to the next stoplight chart we
are going to go after.
Listen, we have had some great leadership on the government's
side too, I mean Ambassador Mills and Dr. Blank and Fred,
Chairman Hochberg.
Do either of any of you want to make a comment?
Maybe starting with you.
A Speaker: Just to say something quickly on the IPR front, so one of the
things that I am very pleased with, I think we are working
very well with our EU partners in this front and we are much
more effective in our multi-lateral negotiations
and bilateral negotiations and the transatlantic IPR working
group which USTR and Commerce Chair have been helpful.
Secondly, I think we have made some more progress particularly
with regard to China.
It is slow.
There is a lot more to be done and Ambassador Kirk and I in
fact are going to be engaging in conversations in another week
and a half in JCCT process which is the main trade conversations
and IPR is at the top of that agenda.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Good.
Karen, do you have a comment?
Karen Mills: Yes. Thank you.
I want to underline Gene's point on the supply chain.
And I have spoken to a number of you about working further
with our supplier connection partnership.
It turns out that of the 250,000 or so small businesses that
export today, many of them also are in the supply chains of lots
of your companies.
And many of them are also in the supply chain of the
federal government.
And as you know, we have deep connections with those
who supply the federal government particularly
the Department of Defense.
And the one thing they say to us is we want
more commercial business.
We need to be able to also export, find ways to take these
products that we are using to serve the federal government and
sell them to other companies and sell them overseas as often as
part of your export activities.
So we are going to try to take this core group that we think
overlaps significantly and reach them better through technology,
through portals, identify opportunities for them.
And then we can come behind and offer them financing and
other support so they can grow and be better parts
of your supply chain.
Jim McNerney: Thank you very much.
Fred, any additional comments before we move
on to the next one?
Fred Hochberg: I will be fast.
Jim McNerney: Yes.
Fred Hochberg: Access to capital is critical.
And as a result, we ran what is called Global Access Forums
to help small businesses.
We actually ran 42 of them in the last two years we launched
it at the chamber.
One of the things that was key was to speed up response time.
We actually came up with something called
Express Insurance.
We actually were able to give exporters a quote for credit
insurance, receivables insurance within five days.
It was actually cited by Harvard University this
fall as an innovation award.
And one of the things we did focus on was cutting
our response time.
We now have, we get 90 percent of all transactions out in
thirty days.
It was about half of what it was when we started about
four years ago.
And we get 98 percent out within a hundred days.
Sometimes transactions like the five billion dollars for Sadara
or couple of airplanes take a little longer.
So that is, that is in the two percent.
But basically about 50 transactions a year are
the only ones that take more than a hundred days to actually
process to get a decision on.
So mostly it has been speed.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Fred, thank you very much.
Sure, of course. Jump in.
James S. Turley: Just listening to this, it is remarkable how all of this stuff
links together.
One of the things that Ernst & Young has done
for the last 26, 27 years is celebrate the accomplishments
of entrepreneurs.
We do this all around the world.
ANDER came out and visited with some of our people.
But about two or three weeks ago, we honored the United
States' entrepreneur of the year.
And Secretary Blank, Undersecretary Sanchez
was there for a while.
And the winner this year was a man named Hamdi Ulukaya from
Chobani Yogurt.
Upstate New York.
And he stands up and in accepting the award,
says a few things.
First he says I am a Turkish immigrant.
And he talks about how important this is.
And he tells a story that he summarizes as only in America.
Because he said that there was a plant of yogurt upstate New York
going out of business, that he bought, guess what,
with an SBA loan.
That now has built itself into this remarkable business and
this is how all of these different things link together
and in his words only in this country.
So it is a spectacular story, we needed to see more and more of.
Jim McNerney: Hey terrific.
That is inspirational.
Thanks for sharing it with us.
Andrew.
Global Competitiveness Sub Committee.
You are on.
Andrew Liveris: Thank you, Jim.
And I will also refer to the stoplight chart and the greens,
yellows, and reds and won't cover all of them.
Some of the team will have things to say specifically.
I will turn to Bob Iger here on intellectual property rights
here in a second.
Obviously, it is a lot, it is a lot of it has been said in terms
of the green.
Just to highlight, two senators just left to go vote on the most
important green yellow on this, so clearly the mutual
accomplishments of everyone on the team and this committee,
the staffs, obviously PNTR is like huge.
And a really big, big achievement.
So we are awaiting the result which we expect to be very
positive for all American business here in a bit.
And so that is huge and positive and maybe Ambassador Kirk will
have a few things to say here in a minute.
While I have got the floor, I will go through the rest
of the updates.
It is very clear that 21st century trade Mike Froman came
to the BIT yesterday and he has gotten the business community
very involved as you know, Jim, and Ursula and others
who are on that body.
We are lending a lot of support.
This team, this committee, our council to TPP as really the
priority, for next year.
And, of course, adding countries, can slow things
down so we have to be appropriately cautious.
But there is a real positive development
in a multi-lap like this.
The United States hasn't had one for a while.
The three that Ursula talked about were uni-lats and so to
get them all lateral in this type, where the US is showing
leadership, is an incredible accomplishment.
And with Pacific rim countries in particular, we all know about
the focus from the White House and all business on
the Pacific rim.
So we are very hopeful that that will be the accomplishment that
this subcommittee and all of us will work hard with our
recommendation letters and all of our other forums to
make happen.
And, of course, I don't want to leave the other ocean alone.
It has already been mentioned from Mike Froman and others that
we also and you will see it as kind of a mixed color bag.
Transatlantic partnership, yellow red.
It is no longer, it is no longer necessary to go back
to the history.
We just have to have a transatlantic US EU combined
approach to standards, and all of the things that matter to us
as a free trading nation.
And I think it is very important that we finally
move that forward.
That will be a little more difficult.
It is going to have some big issues not the least of them
being agricultural.
But we, we have course will be working on that
as the year unfolds.
I think those two are very big positives in terms of it is a
priority for us going forward.
Achievements in the green are clearly there to be read.
The last thing I will say and then I will turn it over to Bob
Iger is and other members of the committee is of course what our
back seat car analogy works here.
This Mr. Sperling.
We tax reform and the notion -- (inaudible) --
(laughter)
I now have the visual of one seat belt, I am trying to work
with this analogy, but I am not going to get very far with it.
(laughter)
I really just think that we have got to be very careful.
It has been said in many forums but in this subcommittee,
tax reform to have American corporations of all sizes be
globally competitive cannot be lost in the wash of the current
transactional discussions, because obviously they are
key and critical.
And all of the things that everyone is doing to make
that not happen.
But certainly tax reform to keep us competitive, simplifying the
tax code you know of you towards global competitiveness on the
tax rates and you towards some degree of territory,
territoriality, that is a tough word for an Australian to say,
we need to really bring that into the conversation in our
committee next year.
And so that becomes a priority.
And that is why that is red.
I will turn it over to our members of the committee.
Jim McNerney: I think Bob was going to go next.
So thanks.
Robert Iger: Sure. Thank you, Andrew and Jim.
I will be brief on this and the subject is intellectual
property protection.
In a way acting Secretary Blank said it all when she said build
it here and sell it everywhere.
Sell it everywhere is the operative term.
Not allow it to be stolen everywhere.
Or not allow someone else to steal it and then to
sell it everywhere.
Because those folks typically don't create jobs and don't
pay taxes in this country.
I know a lot has been said on this.
We obviously have a very robust economy,
thanks in part to intellectual property protection.
Senator Stabenow mentioned build it, grow it, and then
sell it everywhere.
We build and grow a lot of intellectual property in the
United States.
That obviously supports the economy in so many
different ways.
Particularly in terms of creating jobs.
There has been a growing din, maybe din might be an
understatement these about rolling back intellectual
property protection provisions.
In a number of different directions.
Under the guise of stimulating innovation, I can't argue
vehemently enough against that, that premise.
Because I believe that intellectual property protection
has actually supported the creation of goods and services
in the United States that are exportable.
And it has created an environment that has enabled
manufacturers and creators alike to create under circumstances
that justify investment and obviously pay back genius or
creativity in very, very robust ways.
Michael Froman who left the room, mentioned TPP.
And I know that has been mentioned a few times.
I would only urge in conclusion that anything we do as a
government, including trade agreements like TPP must include
robust intellectual property protection provisions.
There have been some efforts to roll back others that have
been agreed to.
Korea being probably the most recent one.
That would be a huge mistake for this country and huge
mistake for our economy.
Jim McNerney: We will heed that warning and that comment.
It is really important to American business as well as
the multi-lateral relationships we have around the world so --
thanks for your leadership on that, Bob.
Jim, did you have an additional comment on this one?
Or I think ambassador Kirk wanted to say something.
Maybe.
Andrew Liveris: I think it has all been said.
This PNTR thing, the vote at high noon is huge and I think
this is a great reflection of the importance of this body.
And it is a great reflection of the leadership of the President
and the administration getting this done.
So fingers crossed.
A Speaker: Okay. Jim, let me add to Andrew's point.
And to Mike's earlier.
I spent a lot of time in Brussels the last couple
of months trying to do an acquisition, spent a lot of
time with Parliament and MBP, there is a tremendous amount
of enthusiasm for the US and EU trade agreement.
Much more heated over there than it is here.
Maybe because they need the exports --
Jim McNerney: The desire for growth can do wonderful things.
A Speaker: They are excited about it.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Thanks very much.
That is a good point.
Ambassador Kirk, did you have a comment here?
Ambassador Kirk: I will try to respond to a number of these.
But in the spirit of Gene's taking us all back to those back
seats, the only visual I get is my father's arm coming over the
back of the seat.
(laughter)
And he was reasonably indiscriminate in terms
of who he struck first.
But that was one advantage of me being the youngest like Senator
Brown, I was better at ducking under the seat.
(laughter)
I just all I remembered were the words somebody slap that fool
and just sort of --
(laughter)
-- always ended up coming in my direction.
So, Gene, I don't know if you knew you were going to
be creating all of this.
You have all raised a number of issues.
And one, we are very much preaching to the choir.
We are all believers, and we would get it.
So I will just pick up on a couple of points.
And one I will start with Bob Igers.
I am proud; I mean I am just sitting here beaming of the
number of things we are celebrating.
Passing the trade agreements, bringing them into effect on
the literally sitting here in anticipation of Russia moving.
But the one thing I love about our team at USTR, we have been
just as honest.
And where we have fallen short, and what I would say to Bob and
the private sector members, we are getting our heads handed to
us in this debate about the value of intellectual property
rights protection in today's economy.
And for everything else you all have highlighted,
whether it is Europe, the transpacific partnership of
what we are doing.
If we don't find an effective way to explain to the American
public that that is the future of our economy, and that when we
give up on protecting our work product and our innovation,
we don't have an economy.
I think we are going to lose.
But I can tell you with the least, we need your help,
and we need your thoughts on how we make a more intelligent
defense of that.
Because otherwise, you know that we are trying to have the
highest disciplines and the transpacific partnership.
I think you know what we are trying to do in Geneva,
not to repeat what Mike said on ITA and others.
But we are very much losing the broader public engagement
and would welcome your thoughts on how we do this.
I would say one thing and I appreciate Mayor Brown, he was
a great supporter of mayors ironically when I was a mayor.
And now he is in office.
The issue about infrastructure cannot be overstated.
We are very proud, Madame Vice Chair that not only did we pass
three agreements, but we brought three trade agreements into
force faster than any administration in effect.
That takes a lot of work.
That is a huge kudos to a very small staff at USTR.
But more important may be than even that trade agreement with
Panama, is that in 24 months, Panama is going
to expand that canal.
And it will more than double capacity.
And there are maybe two ports in America that have their own
ability to put in place the infrastructure to do that.
Secretary Vilsack will speak to it later.
But even forgetting that, we are at a critical point.
We can't move goods down the Mississippi River.
We are doing better in exporting agriculture.
And if we get the goods from the heartland down the Mississippi
to those ports, but there is a critical, critical need for us
to invest in our infrastructure.
So I would hope at some point just as Andrew makes the case we
don't allow tax reform to get lost in it, the other element of
this infrastructure is jobs for us and these are all projects
and areas that we need investment.
I don't want to dominate the time.
I think you all know all of the issues that you have
raised are important.
Andrew, we would love a high standard agreement
with the European Union.
But as so many of you and Scott and I were talking, this is more
of a debate within the union.
Since Gene brought us our colloquial and Mark Froman said
it best, our message to Europe has been we want to do this.
But we want this to be a bridge to somewhere and we think we
should get there on one tank of gas.
This is, you know, an agreement with the European Union and the
United States doesn't invoke any of the low wage.
These are two advanced economies.
If we do this, we want to get this right.
But we have also challenged Europe, that all of these
legacy issues we need to resolve once and for all.
And let's be very honest and very sober about that, so that
we don't end up a year from now where we have been before that
has frustrated that.
On the Transpacific Partnership, let me only add, that the
President has shown wonderful leadership on this when he was
in Cambodia for the East Asian Summit.
He met with the six Asian partners, but hammered them
on two principles.
That as much as we have all collectively trumpeted this
as the next generation trade agreement and as much support it
is among our constituencies in the US, it would be hard for us
to come back with something less ambitious frankly.
Bob, as you said, and what we have done in Korea.
One, he nudged them that we really need to begin to deal
with some of the more difficult issues.
But also committed that this is something we ought to try to get
done next year.
And I think you all know this is our 15th round, but it is the
first in which we have welcomed to Mexico and Canada and the
excitement around the Transpacific Partnership
is really is building.
Not only do we have Thailand, but you have got Costa Ricas,
the most public.
But for the first time ever, we have had members of the European
Union that have quietly come to us an inquired when we might
think about opening up the TPP for others.
But we think between TPP, the Transatlantic Union, that is a
great opportunity.
But we are equally interested at the right time in finding
the right levers to pull to have trade inserted into the
stability that we seek in the Middle East region.
If we do all three of those over the next 24 months,
that is a pretty hefty lift.
And then finally, I would say to all of you, I think the reason
we have been able to have the success we have done is the fact
that we have elevated and credentialed to the American
public that first of all we are going to enforce these
agreements and fight for American jobs.
And as we go forward, we have to make sure we keep that attention
on the enforcement and the leadership the President showed
in establishing our inner agency task force enables
us to have the most coordinated enforcement effort than we have
ever had before.
Jim McNerney: You know, Ron, you know, those two agreements over 24 months,
that engages about if I am just doing the math roughly,
two thirds of the world.
Ambassador Kirk: Oh, absolutely.
Jim McNerney: I mean, it is huge.
I mean, it would be unprecedented and breathtaking.
And the other comment I would make is that you make the PTT
sound easier than it is.
This is incredible work that your guys are doing.
I mean you are talking about one of the biggest
multi-laterals ever done.
You are hanging on to standards.
The IPR may be amongst the most important.
I just want to acknowledge the hard work.
It is having hung around this for a while that I know how
hard this is going to be.
Ambassador Kirk: I appreciate that.
And I am not -- this is not a plea for help.
I mean we have 250 people and not all of them are
professional negotiators.
I mean, that is effectively negotiating 11 bilateral trade
agreements at one time.
These are the same people that are working on the European
Union and everything else.
But, I mean, we can manage that.
But having your help on issues like Bob and others raised since
you all are involved in these other markets, especially to
help these other economies understand that for us, high
standard intellectual property rights is just not negotiable.
And as bad as we want it, we are not going to do an agreement
that gives away our economic future.
So we need your, we could use your help on that.
Jim McNerney: It is good to know you are in the front seat reaching back
sort of keeping everybody in line there.
(laughter)
Ambassador Kirk: I have girls. Thank God.
They punish themselves.
(laughter)
Jim McNerney: One, but they do love their daddy after a while.
They --
(laughter)
-- father of four.
I have got four girls.
Listen, one of your comments lead nicely into the ***'s,
***'s section on Manufacturing Services
Agricultural Sub Committee.
Do you want to make a comment?
On the stoplight chart?
And maybe Secretary Nides can jump in.
Richard Friedman: Very briefly.
I think there has been an enormous amount of progress
on the travel front.
Thanks to I think when Larry Summers, when our first meeting
happened, he said no faster way to grow exports than tourism and
there has been, Secretary Clinton and Secretary Nides
have done a great job on that.
I think there is two things this group should be aware of.
One, is that there is a bill in Congress supported by the
administration but we have to push to expand the Visa
waiver program.
That is the fastest way for us to increase tourism, and that
bill ought to pass and we all ought to push for that.
And secondly, and finally, the fact that we have many more
tourists coming has created some issues at entry points.
So we need to get the funding, and get the program going so
that people once they get here, don't have to stand in line for
another hour or two or three while they wait
for their taxi outside.
That is an issue at the major airports, because I don't think
the admissions who if you will has kept up with the, with the
Visas, but we have made great progress and let
the administration be congratulated on this.
Thank you very much.
Jim McNerney: Good. Secretary Tom, did you want to say something?
Secretary Tom: Thank you very much.
I have no back seat comments.
So I will only say we are driving the bus in the front
seat on this.
And I think we are all working with all inner agency
colleagues, but I think it shows you when the government really
works, it really does work.
I mean, remember, a year ago, Brazil, India, and China had
upwards of 180 days wait period to get a Visa.
And I look at Bob Iger here because he is one of the
beneficiaries of this.
But quite frankly, there is nothing that drives job growth
than tourism and we have proven by that.
We have taken 180 days down to three days in Brazil.
And that is also true in basically China and
India as well.
And it is, it is not just the fact that we made it quicker,
but we have doubled the capacity.
So I just, it is one of those scenarios where when you really
get a lot of focus and a lot of attention and have you know
numbers do matter as we know.
And I think that is proven to be accurate.
And I really give the credit to everyone around this table.
But certainly the counselor officers who are actually at
the front lines, because all of this is in the light of we can't
compromise security.
We have one security problem.
And all of the work that we are doing on this Visa issue goes to
down the drain.
So I really can't tell you how much I think we have made
substantial improvements.
We are also dramatically increasing capacity around
the world.
It was all summed up last week, the National Travel Association,
gave the State Department an award which if you told me that
two years ago, I would have thought that would have been
a bit of a push.
But they went down to Texas and gave the department an award for
the dramatic work that has been done.
So clearly it is a success story and we'll keep up the focus this
year as well.
Thank you.
Jim McNerney: Yeah, but I think I would comment on behalf of a lot
of global enterprises there, but everywhere else, you have
energized the commercial core out there.
We are getting a lot of help.
And a lot of leadership in a lot of very local areas.
In concert with Commerce, and so we really appreciate
your leadership there.
We really do.
Mike, would you care --
A Speaker: Jim, can I just very quickly just comment on some of the
stuff that was discussed.
I am with Customs and Border Protection.
and we are seeing increase in the travel and tourism into the
country in some cases 14 to 16 percent growth in JFK, and Los
Angeles, and Las Vegas for example.
But one, one of the very positive things is the growth
in our Trusted Partner Vetted Partnership Programs.
Global Entry is an example, Nexus Century.
A tremendous amount of growth.
We have got over 1.3 million people enrolled now and
continuing to grow.
We would ask for help from, from this council in continuing to
push those types of programs.
As an example right now, American Express, United
Airlines, and Lowes Hotels reimburse their top players
for global entry enrollment.
In addition to that, one of the things I would like to, to point
out is that as we continue to see this growth in passenger
flow, we are very focused to ensure that we are maximizing
the resources we do have.
In fact as a result of the actual progress report,
there was a survey run of the model ports.
Model ports is critically important.
20 airports that take in, account for 73 percent of the
national travel.
90 percent of those travelers actually that were surveyed are
saying that the hospitality on the part of our officers, the
right questions and the efficiency continue to be
high in that area.
So again, I just wanted to share that with you.
We welcome the growth, but Mr. Friedman is correct,
our resources are going to continue to be strained.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Thank you very much for that report.
And we will stay focused on supporting that.
I appreciate it.
Mike, did you want to make a comment from the White House?
Mike Strautmanis: I do. Thanks, Jim.
I am here representing Valerie Jarrett, I don't have the
brains, the toughness, or the looks to do that well.
So I will just make a quick comment and let you get back
to your meeting.
You know, our business engagement that we have done
over the last four years, has I think through this particular
body, this council has been extraordinarily effective.
I think it is a model for what we can accomplish together.
You heard the President said at the business round table meeting
yesterday how important it is to have US business succeed in
markets around the globe, how much exporting makes sense.
We are going to stay on that work and we are going to
continue to do it.
I know you all have frankly seen quite a bit of the President
lately, whether it has been at the business round table
or in individual meetings, or group meetings here at
the White House.
Get ready for more of that.
That is something that we intend to continue.
I think it has been productive in the accomplishments of the
council on exporting.
The tourism work that we just talked about and much more.
I think it is going to make a difference in this discussion
around the fiscal cliff and Valerie and I and the President
are committed to continuing to this work and to do it in this
fashion with this amount of effectiveness moving forward.
So I just came by to say on her behalf, on all of our behalf's,
thank you, get ready, frequent flyer miles to DC I am sure will
pay off in some way.
Not only and I think we are going to have a broad set of
accomplishments moving forward.
So to be continued.
Thanks, Jim.
Jim McNerney: Thanks, Mike. Thanks for coming by.
Obviously, the White House's support and encouragement here
is a big deal.
So thanks for coming by.
Mike Strautmanis: Yes, sir.
Jim McNerney: I appreciate that.
Ursula, I think you were going to offer some comments on
information technology.
Ursula Burns: I will do this very, very quickly.
I am only doing it for, I am doing it for two reason.
One is I have something good to say about the ambassador,
Ambassador Kirk.
It is nice.
But any way, we didn't have a car.
(laughter)
We signed the ITA, the original ITA in 1997.
And this is information technology agreement,
we signed it in 1997.
And a lot has happened between 1997 and now from
a technology standpoint.
So it is really important that we update this and that we
include more technologies under the umbrella of the ITA.
And I would like to commend the USTR, for the administration in
general, but the USTR in particular for actually
pushing this agenda forward for us.
It is very, very important for America.
It has, it ties into intellectual property
protection, but it also ties directly into trade obviously.
And that progress though needs to continue.
It needs to continue to focus on this.
We need to make sure that we continue to move countries
underneath these agreements such that we don't have any leakage,
and so we can open up trade.
It is important that at the next step that we bring the agreement
to other major markets as I said.
Brazil, Mexico, clearly have to be swept in as well.
It is a lot of work to do here.
We have to update it.
We had a major step in 1997.
I was a child then.
We have to continue to move to bring technologies
under this agreement.
So a lot of work to do.
This is a place that we would probably have rated ourselves
green, but we have to change the goal post.
Right?
Jim McNerney: Yes.
Ursula Burns: We'll be red again.
Jim McNerney: Good.
Any, any additional comments?
Ambassador Kirk: I appreciate the Vice Chair woman's kind words
about our team.
I just want you to know Ursula, that we have a team actually in
Geneva this week as we speak.
This is one area where it is a coalition sort of the willing,
but we do take the comments we get from all of the business
leaders to heart and we are working.
We have reached that particular to developing economies to get
them in.
I think all of you know some of them are skeptical that moving
forward on this means that we would not move as robustly on
the overall DOHA agenda, but we are doing our best
to bring in new economies.
Not a big deal, but Turkey agreeing to sign on.
You know, an economy like Costa Rica, that has become
the biggest advocate for least developed economies to embrace
ITA is a real asset for us.
But we are attacking the two core issues you said of both
bringing in more countries, but more critically
product expansion.
So we will stay on top of this.
It is one of our, our, our top goals.
Jim McNerney: Thank you very much.
Pat, Pat Woertz, did you want to comment on
the transportation infrastructure?
Pat Woertz: Absolutely.
Let me -- let me first talk about agriculture
and Secretary Vilsack is here.
I definitely would like to applaud your leadership of the
Department of Agriculture and your ongoing efforts to assure
that AIG plays an important role in not only economic
growth but exports.
Exports in AIG have grown from 96 billion in 2009 to
a 136 billion in 2012.
Trade surplus similarly has gone up significantly, and China is a
very important receiver of much of those increasing 110 percent
over those same years.
There is a current issue around ag and transportation that I
would like to bring up that I have a couple times
in the past week.
We have a real emergency on the Mississippi River.
Many of you know that the levels are at very low almost
record unnavigable levels.
In some places they are one way traffic or no traffic at all.
It is very important that farmers, manufacturers,
exporters jobs are all, it is all dependent on
the navigability of the Mississippi.
I know Ambassador Kirk you mentioned how much that is
important in normal times.
Right now it is definitely an emergency time.
So we have asked that the administration take the
steps needed including a declaration of emergency
to address this situation.
There is about seven billion dollars' worth of goods that
are stuck in the mud or will be stuck in the mud in January,
December and January together.
And kind of if you think about it, if you had seven billion
stuck in the mud, you would kind of pour some water on it
and get it going.
This is a situation where the kids in the back seat agree.
Parents please.
Pull over.
We have got to make a stop.
So I would look for everyone's help and support to try to get
that to happen.
Thank you.
Jim McNerney: Thanks very much, Pat.
Secretary, would you like to make a comment?
Secretary Vilsack: Sure. I hope the car that you all are talking about is running
on renewable fuel.
And as Pat indicated this has been the best four years of AIG
exports in the history of the country.
We expect and anticipate increase in exports next
year notwithstanding the drought to a 143 billion.
We have had record trade surpluses that helps to
support nearly a million jobs.
We are looking forward to a full implementation and taking full
advantage of the free trade agreements that Ron and his
team have negotiated.
We are very excited about Russia's involvement with
the WTO, because we can now get them in a forum where they can,
where they have to play by rules which will be helpful.
We are excited about the prospects of TPP,
but we are a bit concerned about its impact on dairy.
And as negotiations move forward, our hope is that
agriculture is not lost in those conversations.
I will tell that you while we welcome Mexico to the TPP
discussions, some of the, of the decisions that they have
been making recently with reference to potatoes and beef,
cause a bit of concern about their willingness
to comply by standards.
We have been focused on small business as you all have
discussed just to give you a sense of this.
Just in the last year, over 2,200 small businesses were
first time sellers of AIG products.
We brought nearly 2,500 buyers to the country last year
participated in 300 trade missions, and then supported
29 trade shows that involved 17,500 business contacts and
9,200 products.
Several challenges.
Number one, the drought, both in terms of our capacity to produce
and as Pat indicated the concerns we have
on the Mississippi.
I can tell you that this has reached the highest levels.
During a cabinet meeting, I think my colleagues can attest,
that the President did ask about this.
And the White House is focused on trying to provide a solution
to this problem on the Mississippi.
But there is a long standing concern, drought is not just
a single year.
In many parts of the country, it is a multi-year issue.
And I think we have to get serious in this country about
climate change and we have to get serious about investing in
agricultural research.
So we can continue to adapt and mitigate the consequences
of climate change.
Secondly, the lack of a Farm Bill that is a problem.
Because the Export Assistance Programs that we use at USDA
expired on October first.
We are cobbling things together to keep things in place, but by
January first if we do not have a Farm Bill, our ability to
continue to promote exports will be severely compromised.
There is an issue with cotton in Brazil which impacts and effects
intellectual property.
And all of the products around this table.
If Brazil does not get satisfaction on the cotton
issue, they have the capacity to inflict retaliatory measures and
they have indicated those retaliatory measures will
not be similarly limited to agricultural production
and products.
They will be expanded to include intellectual property as well as
manufactured goods.
So this is an usual that has got to get resolved.
That also requires a passage of a Farm Bill.
So everyone around this table has a stake in the passage of
that piece of legislation.
You may not think you did.
But you do.
Jim McNerney: Yup.
Secretary Vilsack: And then while we are excited about the discussions with the
European Union and Free Trade Agreement, a cautionary note.
This is a part of the world that is not accepted
by all technology.
Has made it very difficult for our products to be
treated fairly.
And as there is discussion about a Free Trade Agreement, our hope
would be that the European Union takes a much more modern view
towards science and technology as it relates to agriculture.
If not, you are going to have a very difficult time getting
the support in Congress to get this thing passed.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
I appreciate the comments and the perspective. Important.
Trade and promotions. Scott?
Did you want to give us a quick update?
Scott Davis: Sure, Mr. Chairman.
I think generally we are making a lot of progress on the various
initiatives.
I think we have talked a lot about export, import, financing.
We have got a grade report card handed out this morning.
Good progress.
The, I think the one area we are a little slow on is
trade facilitation.
It is a single window.
Not unexpected.
There is 40 different agencies with their own
import and export processes.
It is going to take time I think for Treasury to get this thing
put together.
So I think we are not surprised.
Just a minute I will spend on the latest recommendation that
we made and Mayor Brown articulated the purpose just
here just a little bit ago.
And that is really the closer cooperation from the states
and federal and local governments to help promote
export promotion efforts.
I think this collaboration will clearly help eliminate
redundancies and tailor the federal programs to meet local
business needs.
The real focus here as again as we talked about a lot today is
small and medium size enterprises.
I think it is important that multi nationals like UPS
continue to grow export volume and grow destinations.
But to make our exports grow, with explosive rate we need,
it has got to come from small and medium sized enterprises.
And I am kind of excited about this initiative because we at
UPS have been working with the commercial service group for
five years now and helping to, to get our customers to
understand the services that they offer.
And frankly, made a lot of progress.
And I think in 2010, we established the
Beyond One Program.
This is pretty critical, because again, remember only one percent
of the small business exports and of that 70 percent export
to just one country.
So I think the idea of working with them, and telling them
about another country has been really helpful.
I think what we have seen so far is that four out of the
ten customers that have come for counseling services have
actually added another country.
So I think that is great progress and really a hint
of what can happen in the future.
So we are excited about this.
Mr. Chairman.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Thanks, Scott.
Fred or Dr. Blank, either one of you care to make a comment
or both of you?
Fred, go ahead.
Fred Hochberg: Yeah. I will be brief.
By the way in the spirit of Gene and analogies, the one I have
used is on the fiscal cliff, we do a little bit of diet
and exercise, you get there a lot faster.
If you try and do it all by diet, or all by exercise,
it is a lot slower slog.
So this, the PEC advocated for a large increase in our
lending authority.
President Obama asked for $140 billion and Senator Stabenow
said that it was voted on in the House and the Senate in May,
signed by the President on May 30th the day before.
We are now at 106 billion, on our way to 110.
We just closed our year.
We had a 4th record setting year.
About $35.8 billion worth of financing.
$50 billion worth of exports.
Interestingly, we actually financed more exports
overseas this year.
But and this is actually a good trend, it actually did
generate fewer jobs.
The reason that it is a good trend, is two things.
One, companies like Boeing are using less labor per billion
dollars' worth of exports.
We are actually getting more efficient and actually
better competitor.
And we are also doing a lot more service exports.
Last year, we did about of the 35 plus billion, about ten and a
half billion were service exports.
Service exports have longer follow on sales, but frequently
are less, are higher job paying, less job rich at the moment.
And then briefly, on the SME front, we had a record year
for women and minority businesses up 17 percent,
the largest increase ever.
And just in the scale of this, the smallest transaction we did
last year was $10,000.
So we are able to do transactions from $10,000
all of the way up.
A couple of quick trends.
Jim, we have been known, some people think unaffectionately
as the Bank of Boeing.
I wear, I wear that proudly.
Your largest export and I feel that very well.
Jim McNerney: That has never bothered me.
Fred Hochberg: That has never, never bothered me either.
There is both good news and bad news though.
This year, actually we did more financing of
infrastructure than aircraft.
Jim McNerney: Good.
Fred Hochberg: And in part because of the Sadara project in Saudi Arabia,
Which is the largest single transaction that the bank has
ever financed was five billion dollars to open the largest
20 billion -- chemical plant.
A Speaker: 20 billion-dollar.
Fred Hochberg: Which will generate or sustain about 18,000 jobs
in the United States.
So these are very job rich.
Ursula Burns: So now it is the bank of Boeing and the bank of Dow.
(laughter)
Fred Hochberg: I tried the bank of Xerox.
One of the things we do face though, is there is still a
lot of competitors who do not abide by International Framework
or Regulations OACD.
President Obama and then Vice President Chi met and they have
at least set a firm deadline of 2014 that we will have a new
sort of trade finance regime that will level the playing
field between the United States and China.
And then hopefully can bring Brazil and India into the fold
as well.
And just to close, we are, our reauthorization called for
review of our content policy.
That review would be submitted to Congress in late May.
And we also revised our Economic Impact Procedures and that is
actually sitting with Congress now.
Jim McNerney: Thank you, Fred.
Dr. Blank, a quick comment.
Dr. Blank: Yes. I just want to say, the Beyond One Campaign has been
a great campaign.
And I want to thank Scott for his partnership on that and all
of his other colleagues.
It has really been exciting.
One of the other state and local partnerships, I just want to
emphasize for all of you is this Metropolitan Export Initiative
which we have launched in four target cities.
We are now expanding to eight other cities.
But this, you know, a lot of state and local economic
development groups just haven't thought about exporting very
much as part of what they have to put the infrastructure
together for in their local area.
And if you are in locations where you think that is true,
I hope you will work with us as partners to try to bring this
initiative into some of the localities where you might be
to you know think regionally, but what is the infrastructure
that needs to be in place not just for your company but for
all of the other companies there that makes export out
of that area easy.
So that is one that I think has enormous potential and
really just begun.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Thank you.
Thanks for your comment and your leadership on that one.
Director Lee Zak, I believe you have a comment on state
and local cooperation of the federal government.
Director Lee Zak: Thank you very much, Jim.
And following up on Scott's comment about the importance of
working and Secretary Blank's comment of working with state
and local governments, USTDA is known for its strategic
alliances both with the public sector and the private sector.
And I do want to echo Mike Froman's comments about the
fact that the agencies really have been working
very effectively together.
As a matter of fact, I was just in Vietnam with the Department
of Commerce and China with Department of Transportation,
Fred was with us in Miami, yesterday, so we have clearly
been working together.
But our state and local governments are
extremely important.
And as a result, USTDA has developed the Making Global
Local Strategic Partnership and there is a brochure in
your packets.
The thing about that is the fact that we have been reaching out
to these local trade organizations to see
how we can partner with them.
But one of the important aspects of it, and as a matter of fact
we have 19 that have joined our partnerships since May, but I
think the most important part of it and most important part
of the brochure is what it is that we can do.
So it is not just have them on our website.
It is not just saying that we are partner, but really
doing things together.
So since that time, we have held webinars.
We have participated as speakers at their events.
They have participated as speakers at our events.
And following on some of the recommendations from this group,
we have talked about following with them on trade missions
sponsored by governors or mayors where we can then tell them
about what we all can do as trade agencies
in those trade missions.
So it has been very active.
As a matter of fact, when I was just in China,
when of our Making Global Local Partners, was there as well.
And we are able to introduce them then
to our contacts in China.
So I wholeheartedly support working with local and state
governments and these trade associations and it has already
been very effective.
Thank you.
Jim McNerney: Thank you.
Undersecretary Sandalow, did you have a quick comment?
David Sandalow: I do. Thank you very much.
Let me just start by echoing Secretary Vilsack's comment
about renewable fuels and add to it electric fuels for the
cars that we are driving around.
We know that the Consumer Reports rated the Chevy
Vault which is great American product the most loved car by
its drivers last month.
So and maybe this electric cars offer the opportunity Ambassador
Kirk not just to slap the kids but to zap the
kids when they get in the car.
(laughter)
(inaudible)
But seriously two quick points.
First, at the Department of Energy our traditional work
on exports relates to nuclear technologies.
These tend to be very large tenders, very rich US job
potential when we get them.
We work a lot in supporting UF Commercial Advocacy in this
area, in Czech Republic, Poland, Vietnam, Fill and China among
other places.
We are going to continue investing in that.
And then we have expanded our work into the clean energy area,
building partnerships with the trade promotion agencies.
We are going to build on that because we think this is a very
rich area, particularly smart grid technologies.
A lot of others have real potential in the years ahead.
Thank you.
Jim McNerney: Thank you very much for your comments.
Turning to work force readiness, I think Mary you are back up and
perhaps Secretary Solis can, can weigh in.
Mary Vermeer Andringa: Thank you very much.
And I will try to be brief.
I am filling in for Bill Hite, and I know he would also say
that he just really appreciates the great working together
towards the common goal that we have had on the
work force initiative.
And it is really divided into two parts that you can see on
your chart, veterans training and also work
force readiness issue.
And even though we are green, yellow on veterans training
and have certainly made a lot of progress,
there is still more to do.
Because veterans still are more, have a higher unemployment rate
than the national average.
So we still have work to do.
And I think that you know effective implementation of
programs and communities and companies is important.
We all around the table I am sure have our own
active strategies.
I know our company, we have had the same number of applicants
last year, with, who are veterans and this year,
and we have hired two and a half more times this year.
But it is still slightly less than the general amount that
we hire from applications.
So we are trying to figure out why that is.
And why there is a skills gap problem as, as yet.
On the work force readiness side, a lot of great work on
basic employment competencies, in various, various areas around
the states as well as also much more focus on STEM.
But yet we have a lot of opportunities, still,
it is really frightening on what the stats are on
high school completion.
And we need not only more high school students getting their
degree, but making sure that they have got the skills that
they need for the work force today.
And it is great to have really everyone talking about STEM and
I talk about STEM quite a lot.
And I will just say the same thing here.
It is, it is our -- all of our responsibility.
I don't care if we are a parent, we are a grandparent, we are an
employer, we are government, we are education, all kind,
all levels of education.
All of us have to really focus on STEM.
And I really believe it is you know getting all of the
stakeholders together, that can make a big difference in getting
the right skills for our future.
Which is going to make a big difference on our,
on our exports.
And so I believe our, our work force initiative is really going
to be focused on not new programs, but let's focus
on some great programs.
And in the reading material, there are some great best
examples that are happening in states and communities and with
companies on the work force issues and also
on veterans issues.
And we just want to make sure we get implementation and actions
continued, really execution of some good plans and sharing of
best practices.
So research has shown the most successful work force training
programs are when we have a combination of all of the key
stakeholders, industry, labor, government, and education.
And that is how we want to keep up keeping our focus.
Jim McNerney: Thanks, Mary. A lot of progress.
I think Mayor Brown wanted to make a comment on it.
Mayor Brown: Yes. Just on the veterans, I think it is, the year's
conference of mayors have made this a top priority.
You know, in my city for example, I created an apartment
for Veterans Affairs.
Appointed a two star admiral, Vick Guillory and really taken
a holistic comprehensive approach to support veterans.
So I created a week of valor.
And with that week of valor, we had a you know partner with the
chamber, we did a summit for veterans and wounded warriors.
I brought all of the CEO's together to talk about it.
What are our challenges and opportunities?
Brought all of the health providers to talk about it,
the CEO's, Mayo which is located in Jacksonville and others.
And then did a job fair for vets.
I created a Job Fair For Vets.
Literally in my city, I am working with the companies
to put veterans back to work.
And so we had a job fair.
Secretary Ray Mabus came down for that.
I have worked on this for about a year and a half.
And the goal is for other cities to duplicate this.
And on Monday or Tuesday I am going to announce we have
a hundred companies signed up.
And this job fair is not a typical job fair.
It is, you know, these companies have jobs.
These are talented men and women.
And I believe once you have served your country with
distinction, you should be able to transition out and be able to
get a job and take care of your family.
And I don't think we should have any homeless
vets in this country.
And the goal with the US Conference of Mayors is make
sure we work very closely with the private sector.
And I am doing that.
But there are some best practices that I am going
to make sure that you all are aware of.
But we are doing it.
I mean, literally, literally doing it.
And I think it is a great opportunity for us.
It is not just a right thing to do.
They have the skills.
They have the experience.
They are well educated.
And in my administration, and in my top positions,
I have veterans.
So I have my education commissioner is a veteran,
West Point, Stanford, MIT grad.
My director of state affairs is a veteran.
Federal affairs is a veteran.
And so they bring a tremendous sense of experience,
and opportunity to impact the bottom line.
And so I think it is a very, very important issue.
And the US Conference of Mayors have taken this on.
Because I think it is, you are going to have a lot of
them transition in and out of the service.
It is a great way to build a great skilled work force.
And I am selfish because in Jacksonville, you know,
it is a $14.2 billion economic impact and I want that talent
to stay in Jacksonville.
You know, and so it allows us to be competitive in a marketplace.
But that is one area the US Conference For Mayors
are working on.
Jim McNerney: Thank you very much.
That is just, that is just the reason why we wanted to reach
out to your association and get a best practice like that,
that we can get behind.
So thank you for sharing that with us.
Pat, on the way to the Secretary, did you want
to make a comment or did you want to go --
Patricia Woertz: Just real quickly.
Maybe to add to veterans, STEM, the whole discussion of work
force readiness is high school retention rates.
So it even go back to before they can get into STEM programs,
et cetera.
Still it is a very challenged area.
And there are a lot of good programs.
You Turn in Philadelphia, the Jobs For American Graduates,
having significant differences.
In where JAG has been active in 32 states, 900,000 students
have been served.
90 percent graduation rate if they have been involved
in the program.
Where before it is at 75 percent at dropout rates.
Jim McNerney: Okay.
Patricia Woertz: Really important.
Even in inner city schools.
Jim McNerney: Okay, Pat. Thank you very much.
Madame Secretary.
Secretary Solis: Thank you very much.
It is a pleasure to be here and to see our partners here.
I just want to deviate just a little bit from my presentation
because I think it is really important also to underscore
that we have been working with USTR and the State Department
and our other cabinet members here on the trade
agreements as well.
Our component is very fixed.
It is on labor agreements and protections for workers not just
here, but also abroad.
And I think that is a very important element,
because we have never seen so many positive changes occur as
a result of that.
And one example is the Columbia action plan that
We had a lot of input and thanks for all of your support there as
was put together.
well as that, that we were able to garnish.
I think that is going to be a good example for us to move
forward with our other trade agreements and look forward
to working with you on that.
And please take us up on any inquiries you might have from
the Labor Department's perspective on that.
It is very important.
We try to do tripartite agreements also with
governments, with our department, and the ILO
to see how we can protect some of our corporations that come
into different countries to help level the playing field.
Protect the consumer's products that are being developed,
that are going to be sent all over the world.
So there is a higher standard that everyone can agree on.
I think that is something that sometimes may get lost on folks
or folks may not even be aware of.
But let me now turn to the Veterans Training Program.
We have really revamped in my opinion and reformed
our programs.
We are now -- we are seeing many of our services really tactfully
looking at how we can get people ready.
Those returning veterans and giving them a set of important
equipment, tool kits, so to speak, so that they can come
in after six months of being identified in our
work force center.
They are about 3,000 of these centers that they can use as
gold card standard.
And for six months, they will get intensive counseling, case
management, and all of the services that are connected
to our American Jobs Centers as they have been renamed.
But I also want to point out how important it is that many of
these young men and women that are coming back, may not have
had what you would say a typical work experience, prior to their
joining the military.
So it is very important for us to help them identify their
credentialing, the particular codes that would fit the type
of positions that you all as employers would like to see.
We are working with that right now in our ETA, our Employment
Training Program, our administrator to do that.
But we need a lot of help from our community college systems
and for other individuals to help understand better how we
can help expedite that.
That is a big challenge for us right now.
But we remain very committed.
We have many programs that we have opened up to allow for many
of these individuals to take part in some of our job training
programs on-site.
Particularly, the Job Corp Program, where they can actually
go through two years of training after they are released from
their military assignment.
And can get trade skilled up in whatever it might be, IT, STEM,
and we are promoting that across the board.
I do want to point out some of our major corporations that have
been very helpful.
UPS on different occasions we have visited your branches
throughout the country.
You were hiring up in particular our returning vets and making a
point to give them that first step in employment.
Home Depot and Lowes, Coca Cola, have made tremendous ground,
have set tremendous ground in opening up opportunities
to hire people.
I would encourage more companies around the table
to consider that.
And to talk to our fellow partners that are doing
that right now.
It is going to be a challenge for us to
get these folks back to work.
And into the communities that they desire to go back to.
And lastly, the Work Force Readiness Program, I just want
to say that there is a program that I have talked about before.
It is called the TAA Community College Training Program.
And what it does is help partner the community
colleges with businesses.
Businesses are dictating what the curriculum is.
So that whatever the training, credentials, and services that
are provided are reflective of what the marketplace wants.
And that is really the hook here.
There are many community colleges that are starving,
they don't have money.
So they look to us as an incentive.
We have a billion dollars that we are going to be giving out.
We have already given out one billion already.
I have seen some tremendous changes occur on the ground
with manufacturers and others, industries that are partnering
with us like UPS, like Simons, and others that are taking hold
of the training programs with our work force efforts and
actually helping to create a broader spectrum of services
for the region.
So I can talk about Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, places
where we have really seen some, some major changes occurring.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
We really need to continue in this effort.
And if we are really going to be competitive in creating products
that we can actually sell abroad and people do want our products,
then we have to have an adequately trained work
force that is broad and that also contains all segments
of our community.
Especially those young people that don't have the luxury
of maybe going to a four year university but need to get a
one or two year credential.
So that is what our mission has been and we continue to
work with all of you and our partners.
Jim McNerney: Those are all, those are all big deals.
I mean, the Veterans Initiatives, there is
a lot of them.
We need to deepen them and expose them.
I mean, the best practice we just heard about down in
Jacksonville and your training program, Boeing has had some
very, very extensive experience with it.
It is a very, very good program and we need to
just keep driving it.
And we promise to do that.
And so thanks.
Thanks again for your leadership there.
Last, but not least on the stoplight, Raul,
I am coming to you.
Here the PCEA chairman, Raul Pedraza.
Could you give us an update on export control?
Raul Pedraza: Absolutely. First, first and foremost, I am happy not to
have been born when cars could zap.
(laughter)
My colleague here -- I would like to thank the people who
mentioned make it, grow it, and ship it.
For having mentioned shipping it since that is the business
I am in.
And also as a minority member and small business, definitely
by the standards around this table, I would like to thank
everybody who is working on behalf of small and medium
business community, because we need the help and it is
very effective.
We did three letters of recommendation, Mr. Chairman.
We support obviously the administration's
efforts on making life easier for exporters,
while still maintaining our levels of security.
And that has been our focus.
We, we recognize that regular, regulatory clarity and inner
agency collaboration is not always the easiest thing.
I had a quote from Lincoln about how difficult things can be,
but I am going to pass on that.
(laughter)
Anyway, we have some, some big improvement.
We are developing a single IT system and
a single license application.
And this remains a high focus on our list.
There has been progress here where we have the Department of
Commerce, Defense and State are already migrating to the single
IT platform which was developed by the Department of Defense.
So exporters will have one place to go, as opposed to three.
And that has been a big step forward.
The other priority has been the transition of parts and
components from the US Munitions List to the Commerce Control
List and we continue to urge the administration to work
with Congress towards completing this task.
And we have seen some, some real good progress there.
And then that is good.
Education and our outreach are also critical.
And we are seeing some good progress there.
I was just talking to Dave Aguilar from Customs and told
him we really would recommend that we come up with a trusted
exporter program.
Kind of modeled on their program for the, the C-TPAT Program,
which is, has really simplified the process on the import side.
So if we can come up with a similar one on the export side,
I think that that will be a great giant step forward.
I really would like to thank the commitments of the Secretary
Locke and Bryson and Acting Secretary Blank and my main man,
Under Secretary Hirschhorn who we have worked very
closely with.
If you have anything you would like to add, but he is,
I can tell you what, I push people hard.
He pushes me harder.
Jim McNerney: This is important work.
And because it is inner agency, because it is a change in the
way we have done a lot of things, all, all in the name
of something wholly, this is a hard thing.
And so your leadership is a big deal.
And so is that of Commerce, I appreciate the recognition.
Thank you very much.
Listen, we are now to the point where we had to -- did you want
to make a comment there?
Secretary Blank: My only comment is that we have gotten as far as we possibly
could in the first four years.
We are you know another year away I think from really having
this process complete and you know keep the pressure
on us and we'll keep the pressure on everyone else.
And this is the most important least known thing that the
Department of Commerce is doing in my opinion.
Jim McNerney: Okay. Good.
It is known to some of us.
Believe me.
Andrew and I, it is known to.
Listen, the one statutory thing we have to do is which
is approve the stuff we have already sent. Okay.
And so I am assuming without objection, we will approve the
-- what are we calling this?
First Term Report, the First Term Report which
is a compilation of what we have done.
Without objection, I will assume adoption.
Listen, before we adjourn, I just want to thank everybody
for a great first term for this group.
I think, I think we have come a long way both in terms of
focused on the issues and sort of an operating rhythm together.
The Stoplight Chart being able to do one and get through it.
And have it be the guide for the work plan we are going to put
together here in the first quarter is an important part
of that accomplishment.
So I just, I just want to thank everybody on the public and
private sector side of the equation here.
And for your team's leadership in particular.
It has made -- made a big difference.
So Ursula, do you have a comment before we adjourn?
Ursula Burns: Just one. We had a trip scheduled.
As all of you know, I hammered you to sign up for it.
(laughter)
You did sign up and then we canceled the trip.
We will have one in 2013, so stay tuned.
And I would expect that when we get the date scheduled and the
place scheduled that you guys will join to make it successful.
Thank you.
Jim McNerney: So maybe more hammering.
No, it was a shame that it was canceled.
But it was a good reason.
Any final comments?
Secretary Blank: So just to thank you again for everything that you have
done that has been so useful in this first term.
And as we are moving towards the second team, I am really looking
forward, I and my whole team and all of my colleagues here I know
too working with you to develop a very robust agenda for where
we move forward.
And what we need to get done.
So thank you.
Jim McNerney: Well, thank you for your leadership and commitment.
Our next meeting is Wednesday, March 12th.
So a little bit of work on the committee level between
now and then.
But we'll see you all then.