Another Busy Day in D.C.

On 09.24.09, By Patrick McNally

Because our Doorknock trip is only four days long and there are so many individuals and groups that we want to meet with, our days in Washington are extremely busy, with delegates (and staff) very tired by the end of the day.

Delegates started out with a 7:45am breakfast meeting before heading off in teams to our various meetings. I joined the group going to the Department of Commerce to meet with the Acting Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, Rochelle Lipsitz. We expressed our thanks to her for the Commercial Service’s efforts to expand export opportunities for U.S. companies. We also told her that we would be advocating for additional resources for the USCS in our meetings on the Hill.

GroupPhotoKirkWe then headed to the House side of the Capitol to meet with Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), co-Chair of the U.S. China Working Group. This followed yesterday’s meeting with Rick Larsen (D-WA), Kirk’s co-Chair in the Working Group. Kirk and his staff updated us on the status of the Working Group’s competitiveness agenda and thanked us for our efforts to gain co-sponsors to the U.S.-China Market Engagement and Export Promotion Act, which has growing support and thirteen co-sponsors as of today.

Further briefings and meetings with members of Congress and the Administration.  In all, the delegation had nineteen different meetings today and now we’re all off to dinner to take a breather and prepare for an evening busier day tomorrow.

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A Push for Exports and U.S. Competitiveness

On 09.22.09, By Patrick McNally

Among AmCham Shanghai’s principal messages this week in Washington is that U.S. exports are key to economic recovery, and that U.S. SMEs need greater assistance in taping the vast China market. Compared to our leading competitor nations, the United States lags significantly behind on exports – in fact, of the fifteen largest exporting nations by value, the U.S. was dead last in exports as a percentage of GDP.

GovEnglerGroupPromoting export growth is a goal shared by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), whose leadership met with the Doorknock delegation on Monday. John Engler, the former Michigan governor and current president of NAM, emphasized that more needs to be done by the U.S. Government to encourage U.S. companies to sell American made goods overseas. AmCham Shanghai members highlighted the U.S.-China Market Engagement and Export Promotion Act (H.R.2310/S.1616), sponsored by Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) in the House and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) in the Senate, which would provide much needed resources for U.S. businesses to navigate China’s markets.

AmCham Shanghai and NAM additionally agreed that a review of U.S. export control regulations is needed to improve our competitiveness, and that the U.S must be more aggressive internationally in advocating for U.S. standards.

All in all it was a great conversation with a leading business organization that, while different in mission from AmCham Shanghai, shares a common goal of improving the U.S.’s competitiveness abroad.

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