Published: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
By Angela CarterRegister Staff

MIDDLETOWN — U.S. Department of Commerce Deputy Secretary Dennis F. Hightower Monday appealed for state businesses to join new efforts to boost American exports and thereby create jobs.

Hightower and members of the new Export Promotion Cabinet met business leaders at the Export Assistance Center, and next week they will fan out across the country explaining the National Export Initiative, which President Barack Obama launched by executive order March 11.

“To look out for our workers, we’ve got to be able to compete in a global market place,” Obama said in a video message at the opening of the event.

The president instructed his Cabinet to make export promotion a priority and the initiative sets a goal to double U.S. exports in five years, which could create an estimated 2 million “high-paying jobs” across the manufacturing, services and agriculture sectors.

According to U.S. Commerce Department data, exports accounted for 11 percent of gross domestic product in 2009 and supported more than 10 million American jobs. Every $1 billion in exports supports 6,250 manufacturing jobs, the department said.

Gross domestic product is the total market value of all final goods and services produced within the nation each year.

“We have to get back to creating, to building and to innovating,” Hightower said, adding that 1 percent of the United States’ 30 million businesses are exporting, and of those 58 percent export to only one market.

“We’ve got to change that,” he said.

Anne Evans, director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center, said 17 Connecticut companies will be traveling with Commerce Department officials on trade missions this year to areas such as Israel, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean.

“We’re poised and ready to make sure that the president’s initiative gets pushed through,” said Andrew Lawrence, president and director of the Caribbean Trade Council Inc. in Hartford.

Peter Gioia, vice president and economist for the Connecticut Business & Industry Association, said workers at companies involved with trade receive better salaries and wages.

“It really is important to focus on international trade,” Gioia said, adding that economic recovery is starting in other regions. “Asia, Latin America and parts of Europe are coming back stronger than the U.S. Our dollar is weak and it makes our products on sale in other countries.”

Angela Carter can be reached at 203-789-5752 or acarter@newhavenregister.com.