(Bridges Weekly)
U.S. President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative (NEI) is on track to double U.S. exports over the next five years, trade officials in Washington announced Monday. Gary Locke, the U.S. Commerce Secretary pointed towards the 17% increase in exports from this time last year, rising to slightly over US$1 billion. In order to achieve the five year goal, U.S. exports would have to maintain a year on year increase of about 15%.
The encouraging indicators come from sources including the Commerce Department and the Export-Import Bank. The Obama administration says these data suggest the NEI will reach or exceed the intended goal.
Critics, however, say the data is not being portrayed accurately and have expressed doubts that the 15% growth rate can be maintained. That the base data year being used by the Obama administration is 2009, a year which saw a three year low for U.S. exports, they say. Read more here.
