President Forms Export Promotion Cabinet
Grassley says now is the time to move pending FTAs.
Compiled by staff
Published: Mar 12, 2010
President Obama has signed an Executive Order establishing an Export Promotion Cabinet. The EPC is an Administration initiative designed to improve conditions that directly affect the private sector's ability to export. The Export Promotion Cabinet is charged with monitoring the National Export Initiative.
EPC members include the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor. Other members include: the Director of OMB; the USTR; Assistant to the President for Economic Policy; National Security Advisor; chair of the council of economic advisers and the heads of several other agencies.
The Presidents' Executive Order says the cabinet shall address exports by small and medium-sized enterprises; federal export assistance; trade missions; commercial advocacy; export credit, among other areas critical to trade between countries. The Export Promotion Cabinet reports directly to the President.
In reaction to the President's statement, Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who is Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, said he appreciates the President's recent attention to trade. And he took the opportunity to continue his push to get Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korean passed into law. The three agreements have been pending for almost three years.
"The White House says it'll bring those agreements forward at an appropriate time," Grassley said. "It would be hard to think of a more appropriate time than right now. Without exports, which support jobs, the economy would be in even worse shape than it is."
Grassley says the President's new efforts might make some difference in helping U.S. businesses increase their exports, but nothing compares to opening new markets through reciprocal trade agreements.
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