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An American Manufacturing Movement: Expansion

Congress, the administration, and industry should intensify efforts to support the President’s goal to double exports from $1.8 to $3.6 trillion and reduce the trade deficit by more than 50 percent. Congress and the administration should ensure the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative is completed by the end of 2012 and push for improved foreign export control systems.

This five-part series by the Council on Competitiveness calls for a new era of production excellence in America. Check back throughout the week for more strategies for American manufacturing excellence.

Part 1: Innovation

Part 2: Expansion (you are here)

Part 3: Talent

Part 4: Productivity

Part 5: Competition


The Council on Competitiveness’s Make: An American Manufacturing report issues a call to keep manufacturing a cornerstone of American independence, economic prosperity, and national security. This series was recently presented to the government as a non-partisan strategy to resolve issues facing American manufacturing, which remains a driver of innovation and job creation, even as automa­tion and technology make manufacturing more effi­cient. A new era of manufacturing excellence offers hope for good jobs, new innovations, and a higher standard of living. America would benefit from faster economic growth, a more secure industrial and defense base, and an ability to produce solutions to national challenges in energy, health, environment, and the economy.

Americans have lost production of cutting-edge innovations developed in America because of tax, regulatory, skill, finance, and infrastructure limitations that make production elsewhere more competitive. Americans have always been pioneers, risk-takers, and makers. The Council’s task is to set those impulses free and embrace production. Americans have proven adept at rising to the economic challenge of their time. Such a time is now for manufacturing—and Americans can set in place the policies to ignite a new era of competitive and sustainable manufacturing.

CHALLENGE: Expand U.S. exports, reduce the trade deficit, increase market access, and respond to foreign governments protecting domestic producers. 
SOLUTION: Utilize multilateral fora, forge new agreements, advance IP protection, and export control regimes to grow high-value investment and increase exports.

Recommendation: Congress, the administration, and industry should intensify efforts to support the President’s goal to double exports from $1.8 to $3.6 trillion and reduce the trade deficit by more than 50 percent.

  • Launch trade liberalization negotiations with Brazil, China, India, the EU, Japan, and Trans Pacific Partnership Countries—Australia*, Brunei Darussalam, Chile*, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam. (*already in place)
  • Begin negotiations to deepen and broaden the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
  • Increase use of anti-dumping measures and countervailing duties to provide relief from unfairly priced or subsidized imports.
  • Encourage China, Russia, India, Vietnam, and others to upgrade the existing 1996 Government Procurement Agreement (GPA).
  • Increase intellectual property protection through the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Priority countries include China, India, Russia, and Brazil.

Recommendation: Industry CEOs and government leaders should elevate and advance U.S. technical standards and the voluntary consensus standards-setting process.

  • Reinforce the principles laid down in the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement.
  • Encourage industry-led standards for interoperable manufacturing and logistics systems.
  • Develop technical standards for emerging technologies and promote global technological collaboration.

Recommendation: Congress and the administration should ensure the President’s Export Control Reform Initiative is completed by the end of 2012 and push for improved foreign export control systems.

  • Implement a U.S. export control regime with a single streamlined control list, a primary enforcement agency, a single licensing agency, and a unified information technology system. The new regime should also enable foreign doctoral-candidate researchers to participate in a wider scope of defense-related projects where their participation would not pose a national security risk.
  • Renew efforts to negotiate and enforce enhanced rules on foreign government export restrictions that are currently being used by other countries to manipulate and distort markets.

Recommendation: Focus on actions to encourage China to make permanent the special intellectual property rights campaign it ran from October 2010 to June 2011.

  • Create a senior directorship in the Chinese Ministry of Commerce with adequate staff and funding. The directory should be driven by metrics to reduce counterfeiting and required report progress regularly and publicly.
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