Obama urges businesses to bring jobs back to U.S. from abroad
President Obama, urging businesses to bring jobs back from abroad, disclosed new steps to promote more factory construction in the U.S. and more investment here by foreign companies.
Obama touted companies that have chosen to do more manufacturing in the U.S. as part of promoting what his administration calls in-sourcing of jobs by U.S. companies after decades of outsourcing to foreign countries.
“My message to business leaders today is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to the country that made our success possible. And I’m going to do everything in my power to help you do it,” Obama said after meeting with the executives at a White House forum Wednesday on ways to boost domestic investment.
In the coming weeks, Obama will propose new tax provisions to reward companies that bring back jobs or make new investments here and move to eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, the White House said.
Obama has targeted those breaks before but has been unable to persuade Congress to eliminate them.
Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and several top administration officials met with executives of 14 companies, including large multinationals such as Ford Motor Co. and Intel Corp. as well as smaller firms such as Chesapeake Bay Candle in Maryland. The companies recently added or said they would add jobs in the U.S. rather than overseas.
“We all are very motivated to bring jobs back,” said Bruce Cochrane, chief executive of Lincolnton Furniture in Lincolnton, N.C., which is adding 130 manufacturing jobs in the U.S. “It just makes good business sense in a lot of respects: the cost, the American worker, the productivity.”
The White House noted that although many other countries solicit business investment at the national level, the U.S. typically has left that job to the states. The Obama administration is trying to change that.
Last year it launched a program called SelectUSA to work with states to promote business investment. Obama will propose increasing the program’s budget by $12 million in the 2013 fiscal year.
In addition, the White House said the Small Business Administration would use its existing loan authority to educate small companies about government loans of up to $5 million that are available to add jobs here.
Also, the Commerce Department and the State Department will launch a joint pilot program in Canada, China, Mexico and seven other countries to encourage foreign companies to invest more in the U.S.
