Tom Donohue announces U.S. Chamber of Commerce sponsorship of the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan

U.S. Chamber
April 14, 2004

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.

I'm Tom Donohue, president and CEO of the Chamber, and with me is Doug West, president and CEO of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan.

I'll start with some remarks, introduce Doug, and then we'll take your questions.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce today is announcing its $1 million sponsorship of the U.S. Pavilion at the 2005 World Expo.

We are sponsoring the Pavilion because we believe in engaging the global economy in every way possible.

The World Expo represents a celebration of human progress and innovation in the arts, in culture, and in products and services that have raised living standards and levels of prosperity.

So the Chamber will be in Japan in 2005, and we'll be bringing U.S. companies with us because to win in the global marketplace, we need to go where the competition is.

Chamber members with a strong interest in Japan and the Asia-Pacific will be invited to join our delegation, and we're planning to organize a U.S.-Japan business symposium alongside the Expo to help focus companies on the many business opportunities that exist between our two countries.

The Japanese economy is picking up steam—it has now grown in every quarter for the past 12 months—and there is renewed corporate interest in that country.

The delegation we're leading to Japan is just one example of how the Chamber is helping U.S. businesses engage the global economy. 95% of the people that U.S. firms are trying to sell a product or service to live outside our borders. So trading and investing around the globe is not a luxury. It is a requirement for competitiveness, growth, and prosperity.

With 96 American Chambers of Commerce abroad and with offices in Brussels and Hong Kong, the U.S. Chamber has a vast network of contacts at the highest levels of business and government in places all around the world. We use our influence to break down trade barriers and create opportunities for our members.

For example, two years ago then U.S. Chamber Chairman Steve Van Andel led a delegation of small and mid-size U.S. companies to China to introduce them to that market and help them build new relationships there.

The Chamber facilitated China's entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001, and today we're making sure the Chinese know that we're watching their progress closely.

At the APEC CEO Summit in Thailand last year, we gave U.S. Chamber member companies the opportunity to meet with a number of heads of state and government to raise their corporate priorities directly.

We did the same at the APEC Summits in China in 2001 and Mexico in 2002, and we'll do the same in Chile later this year.

Already this year, the Chamber has led corporate missions to Vietnam and China, carrying the message to decision-makers in those countries that they must honor trade agreements and continue to open their markets.

In just four days from now, I'll be heading to India for a week, following a trip made there in February by the Chamber's Senior Vice President of International Affairs, Lieutenant General Dan Christman.

We're seeing lots of economic progress in India: a steady and dramatic reduction in tariffs; comprehensive regulatory reform; the opening up of many sectors, including telecom, pharmaceuticals, IT, insurance and banking; and investment in infrastructure, especially roads and ports.

As a result of these efforts, India's economy grew by more than 10% in the last quarter of last year.

U.S. exports to India are at long last growing at a very quick rate—by 20% last year, in fact.

During our trip, we will encourage India to continue opening its markets and urge Indian companies to increase their job-creating investments in the U.S.

We'll announce a special initiative to help U.S. companies compete effectively for a larger share of India's rapidly growing imports.

We'll also invite Indian firms to participate in the Chamber's international anti-counterfeiting and anti-piracy initiative.

By some estimates, intellectual property theft accounts for 9% of all world trade. As India's economy continues to grow, it is finding out that it, too, is increasingly a prime target for counterfeiters and intellectual property thieves.

While in India, I imagine that many of my conversations with business and government leaders will focus on the issue of outsourcing—a topic that is hard to avoid anywhere you go these days.

As you know—in fact, as many of you have reported—some U.S. companies have sourced call center, computer programming, and other service jobs to India, and this has created quite a stir in this country.

The Chamber's message is clear: the U.S. must be able to source around the world to stay competitive in the global economy, and the business community will fight any attempts by our government to restrict outsourcing.

I take exception to assertions made by politicians and political candidates that U.S. CEOs are selling out America's future by moving jobs overseas. These people are exploiting an emotional issue with little regard for the facts.

While there are various estimates on the number of jobs moved overseas, it remains, by all accounts, a small percentage of our economy.

And the latest government data shows that foreigners outsource far more office work to the U.S. than American companies send abroad. In fact, we enjoy a $60 billion surplus in services trade with the rest of the world.

Another study shows that outsourcing by other countries directly provides 6.4 million jobs in the U.S., and many millions more indirectly.

And by the way, jobs produced here as a direct result of insourcing pay better than the average domestic job.

Also, lower costs and greater productivity generated from sourcing enable U.S. firms to invest more in their core business, develop new and better products, and create better, higher-paying jobs here at home.

Let's also remember that global sourcing creates export markets for U.S. firms. Foreign service providers need our computers, telecommunications equipment, and other hardware and software to do the work we've sourced to them.

All in all, what we are witnessing is not permanent job loss in the U.S., but rather "job churning" created by a rapidly changing, competitive global economy.

What about those who are displaced? We have to educate, train, and retrain our workforce. Business spends $60 billion a year training their employees, and the federal government pitches in another $15 billion.

We strongly support the president's recent announcement of a new initiative to help more workers gain the needed skills and training to be competitive in the worldwide economy.

The Chamber believes that outsourcing deserves an honest debate, free of emotions and election-year political agendas.

Today we have given you an advance copy of a report on outsourcing that we will be sharing with Congress, the administration and business leaders in the coming days and weeks. This report tries to identify what we know and don't know about the outsourcing phenomenon.

Outsourcing trends are new and changing quickly, but a few conclusions can be made: that outsourcing is not the major threat to U.S. workers that it is made out to be; that foreigners actually send more office work to us than we ship to them; and that the U.S. would pay a tremendous economic price were it to start passing the 80 some state and federal bills designed to stop outsourcing.

You'll notice that the report includes the Chamber's detailed recommendations for making the American workforce more competitive and successful in the years ahead.

It urges policymakers, the press, and the public to stop looking at these questions in isolation, but rather, see the issues of trade, the global economy, jobs, sourcing, education, immigration, demographics, and entitlement programs as interconnected.

They must be addressed together and sensibly to ensure America's continued prosperity.

Ladies and gentlemen, the U.S. Chamber believes that America can compete and win against anybody in the global economy.

That's why we are going to Japan for the World Expo next year. And that's why we will continue to go all over the world in the interests of U.S. companies.

I'd now like to turn things over to Doug West, who will provide you with details about the U.S. Pavilion at next year's World Expo.

Doug is president, CEO, and member of the board of Aichi USA 2005.

Before taking this job, Doug was senior vice president of government and industry affairs at Toyota Motor North America, a company he had been with since 1982. Doug?

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