India and China deals boosting US exports: Obama

“If we’re serious about fighting for American jobs and American businesses, one of the most important things we can do is open up more markets to American goods around the world,” Obama said in his weekly address to the nation.

“That’s why I met with China’s President Hu Jintao at the White House this past week. We’re now exporting more than US$100 billion a year to China in goods and services,” he said, adding that as a result of deals the US we’ll be increasing its exports to China by more than US$45 billion, and China’s investments in America by several billion dollars. Most important, these deals will support some 235,000 American jobs. And that includes a lot of manufacturing jobs, he added.

“That goal is why I fought so hard to negotiate a new and better trade deal with South Korea – a deal with unprecedented support from business and labour – that will support more than 70,000 American jobs.

And that’s why I travelled to India last fall to help pave the way for US$10 billion in new deals for American businesses and more than 50,000 new American jobs,” Obama said.

Referring to his visit to a GE plant in Schenectady, New York, he said: “This plant is manufacturing steam turbines and generators for a big project in India that resulted from a deal we announced around that trip – a project that’s helping support more than 1,200 manufacturing jobs and more than 400 engineering jobs in Schenectady. Good jobs at good wages, producing American products for the world.”

“Leading the world in innovation. Opening new markets to American products. That’s how we’ll create jobs today. That’s how we’ll make America more competitive tomorrow. And that’s how we’ll win the future,” Obama said.

Observing that these are a new and challenging time, in which technology has made competition easier and fiercer than ever before, he said countries around the world are upping their game and giving their workers and companies every advantage possible.

“But that shouldn’t discourage us. Because I know we can win that competition. I know we can out-compete any other nation on Earth. We just have to make sure we’re doing everything we can to unlock the productivity of American workers, unleash the ingenuity of American businesses, and harness the dynamism of America’s economy,” Obama said.