Jobs Agenda: Trade

The U.S. Chamber advocates for a robust trade agenda so that U.S. companies can export their goods and services around the globe to create jobs for American workers.

The Facts

Outside our borders are markets that represent 73% of the world’s purchasing power, 87% of its economic growth, and 95% of its consumers. Developing countries purchased 53% of U.S. goods exports in 2010, led by a boom in sales to East Asia and the Americas. Combining sales of manufactured goods, farm products, services, and natural resources, the United States tops both Germany and China by about $200 billion as the world’s top exporter.
More than 50 million Americans work for companies that engage in international trade, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury. One in three manufacturing jobs depends on exports, and one in three acres on American farms is planted for hungry consumers overseas.
Many foreign countries still maintain steep tariffs and other barriers against U.S. exports, while the U.S. market is largely wide open. American workers and farmers deserve the opportunity to compete—and succeed—on a level playing field.

The U.S. Chamber’s Plan to Double U.S. Exports in Five Years

Enact pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea to open markets and create American export jobs without adding to the deficit:
- To create the 20 million jobs we need by 2020, we must leverage the opportunities presented by trade. A U.S. Chamber study determined that failure to enact these trade agreements will cost more than 380,000 American jobs.
Clinch additional market-opening accords:
- Properly negotiated, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will level the playing field for American workers in the booming Asia-Pacific region. Eliminating all tariffs on transatlantic commerce could boost U.S. trade with the EU by more than $120 billion within five years.
Modernize export controls:
- Outdated limits on foreign technology sales cost U.S. businesses billions. Sensitive products with military applications must be protected; but when technologies are already widely available from America’s trade competitors, controls make no sense.
- A study by the Milken Institute found that modernizing U.S. export controls could boost America’s GDP by $64 billion and create 340,000 jobs.
Help small and medium-size companies export:
- The Chamber is partnering with the Export-Import Bank of the United States on its Global Access for Small Business initiative to help more than 5,000 small companies export goods and services produced by U.S. workers.

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