Trading Up

A New Vision for U.S. Global Leadership

By Thomas J. Donohue, President and CEO, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

There are many ingredients for restoring and sustaining a job-rich, free enterprise economy in America. Among the most critical are being open and engaging with the world in trade, capital, people, and ideas-and rejecting the false promises of isolationism and defeatism. 

The price of isolationism is high. How high? Isolationism puts at risk the jobs of 57 million Americans employed by firms that benefit from exports, including one in five U.S. factory jobs. And let's not overlook the 5 million good-paying U.S. jobs that are a direct result of investment from abroad.

Isolationism also carries high opportunity costs. Inaction on trade-including Congress' failure to approve already negotiated free trade deals with Colombia, Panama, and Korea and the stalled worldwide trade negotiations known as the Doha Round-denies the United States of millions of new jobs and sales abroad, where 95% of the world's population resides.

The U.S. Chamber is calling for an aggressive strategy to double U.S. exports around the world over the next five years. To get there, we need to level the playing field by completing free trade deals. We also need to help small businesses break into the export scene-not with handouts or some kind of state-led industrial policy, but with training and matchmaking to demystify foreign markets. The Chamber proposes doubling federal expenditures on export promotion, with a focus on small companies' exports.

This trade agenda is about more than just economics. It's also about America's leadership in the world, its geopolitical relationships, and its national security.