The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
The Department of Commerce has released a report that highlights the importance of trade agreements in supporting the U.S. economy and American jobs.
Ed. note: This is cross-posted from the Department of Commerce blog. See the original post here.
Today, Secretary Pritzker and the Commerce Department released a report showcasing that in 2014, nearly 3.2 million jobs—44 percent of all jobs supported by goods exports—were supported by the export of goods to our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners.
In 2014, the United States reached record levels in goods and services exports for the fifth consecutive year totaling $2.34 trillion. Since 2009, goods exports to our current FTA partners grew 64 percent versus 45 percent to the rest of the world. The United States continues to have a trade surplus in manufactured goods, $56 billion in 2014, with the countries in which we have trade agreements.
This report highlights the importance of trade agreements in supporting the U.S. economy and American jobs. Ninety-five percent of the world’s consumers live outside of our borders and the demand from overseas middle-class markets will continue to grow. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to be home to 3.2 billion middle-class consumers by 2030. American businesses want to sell more products internationally and foreign citizens want more access to U.S. products and services.
In 2014, nearly 3.1 million jobs, or 43 percent of all jobs supported by goods exports, were the result of goods exports to the countries engaged in the current Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. While Canada and Mexico represent the largest portion of U.S. jobs supported by exports among TPP member countries, goods exports to the five new potential FTA partners in the Asia-Pacific—Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Vietnam—supported nearly 460,000 jobs in 2014.
Passage of fair trade legislation, such as Trade Promotion Authority and the TPP, is a critical step toward enabling our country to negotiate modern trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific and Europe that reflect our values, open up new markets, level the playing field for our businesses and workers, and support more high-paying American jobs.
