Commerce Secretary Drums Up Support for Exports, NAFTA : Markets: Cabinet member plans trade mission to take U.S. executives to Russia. She touts business opportunities there.
Secretary of Commerce Barbara H. Franklin, trying to boost U.S. exports and drum up support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, told Southland executives Wednesday that the road to foreign markets has never been more open.
“With the Cold War behind us, we believe commerce is America’s new front line for economic growth,” said Franklin, who succeeded Robert A. Mosbacher in March after he left to help run President Bush’s reelection campaign.
Franklin, only the second woman to hold the key commerce post, told more than 200 executives and entrepreneurs in Irvine that 18 countries have emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union, representing 18 new markets for U.S. exports. To take advantage of that, Franklin said, she is organizing a trade mission that will take a number of U.S. business executives to Russia a week after the presidential election in November.
U.S. exports grew by 68% in the past five years, she said, making the United States the world’s largest exporter in 1991, with overseas sales totaling $422 billion. And still more opportunities abound, she said, for U.S. companies that seek markets abroad.
The strength of future U.S. exports, Franklin said, lies in technology. Acknowledging its importance, she said she has requested a 30% increase in government funding for innovative technology next year. In the current fiscal year, the government has earmarked only a little more than $100 million to support 70 grants for such research and development, she said.
A free-trade zone comprising Canada, Mexico and the United States would create a market of 360 million consumers with a total output of $6.5 trillion, said Franklin, a former Washington management consultant who was one of the first women to graduate from Harvard Business School.
“It’s projected that NAFTA will increase U.S. economic growth by $35 billion in the next decade--benefiting U.S. industry, agriculture and services,” she said.
Acknowledging that thousands of low-paying jobs in the United States could be lost to Mexico, Franklin said that as many as 175,000 new jobs could result from increased trade among the three countries.
The conference is the fourth in a series of export initiatives the Commerce Department has held this year under the so-called Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, created two years ago to streamline U.S. trade promotion and push for exports in new or neglected foreign markets. During the one-day conference at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, 19 federal and state agencies, including the Export-Import Bank and Treasury Department, were represented.
Franklin also announced the five winners--the largest number in a single year--of the 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. A California company--Granite Rock Inc. in Watsonville--was among those cited for innovative management style. Granite is only the second winner from the state since the award--named after the former commerce secretary--was created by Congress in 1987.
Executives attending the conference said that they picked up some tips.
Glen Minklein of Airtronics Inc., an Irvine radio control manufacturer, said he learned more about foreign pricing and how to ship goods abroad quickly and conveniently for foreign customers.
But Charles Shong, an executive at Asian Pacific Capital Inc. in Newport Beach, said the Commerce Department should try to do more to help Americans understand and take advantage of trade opportunities in Asia.
“Comparing the number of Japanese trade representatives in this country with U.S. representatives in Japan, the Japanese have a lot more people to help small Japanese companies sell to the United States,” he said.
