Locke’s Agenda
Gary Locke, U.S. Secretary of Commerce
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke laid out his export agenda last week to a conference I attended in Washington. Some of the agenda was new, some old, some points aroused skepticism, while others were admirable. You can read Locke’s entire speech here. Here’s my take on his agenda:
- Secretary Locke wants to enhance U.S. trade promotion. The U.S. Commercial Service has about 1500 people around the world in 77 countries, and the Secretary rightly wants to make sure that small U.S. companies know about them and take advantage of the help they offer American exporters. My take? Every Commerce boss says this. My question? If, Mr. Secretary, you succeed in publicizing the Commercial Service, will you provide them with the resources the Service needs to meet the resulting demand? I suspect not. (Background: The Commercial Service budget is abysmal, falling fast, and morale is going down the tubes.)
- Locke is pushing American visa reform! This is truly new. I have been following this stuff since the Johnson Administration and this is the first time I have heard a U.S. Commerce Secretary so clearly push for looser rules on visas. Secretary Locke, based on his own experience pushing exports as Governor of the state of Washington, realizes how tough it can be to get a U.S. visa in some countries – and that this is killing export business. Secretary Locke told horror stories of foreign business visitors unable to attend trade shows in the United States or to visit U.S. suppliers to finalize deals. He said one in three potential buyers from China can’t get a visa! Full marks on this agenda item!
- The Secretary then argued that the United States must modernize export controls. He had another litany of horror stories and observed that Europeans and others are reluctant to purchase controlled inputs from U.S. suppliers that would go into their own high tech products. Current controls mean that U.S. manufacturers appear to be unreliable suppliers, lose out to foreign competitors, and foreign manufacturers don’t want to be subject to the derivative controls of using U.S.-controlled inputs. Locke has ordered his export control staff (Commerce handles controls on dual-use products, not pure military products) to eliminate controls on products sold to our closest allies, and to create “fast track” procedures for other countries. This, potentially, will eliminate or expedite half of the export licenses granted by Commerce. Uproarious applause from this observer.
- Commercial counterfeiting or product piracy cost American companies up to $250 billion each year, so Secretary Locke wants ever stronger efforts to enforce intellectual property rights. He is launching a drive to reform operations of Commerce’s Patents & Trademarks Office and wants to get tougher on overseas enforcement of IPR rights. Good on you, Gary!
- Locke wants to leverage (“leverage” as a verb is a big thing in Washington) the entire U.S. Government to help promote exports. As chair of the cabinet-level Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee, he is positioned to make a start at that. Still, at least twenty different federal agencies and departments make some claim to working in export promotion and they compete furiously for attention and resources. Most Commerce secretaries try to make sense of this mish-mash. I wish him luck.
Three out of five ain’t bad.
