"Trade Saves the Day" - that's an editorial headline (Washington Post 9.17.08) whose timing couldn't have been better. In a week that has much of the financial world gasping for breath as they dig through headlines announcing Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, Merrill Lynch being sold and AIG being taken over by the Fed to keep one more failure at bay, it was good to see something positive. Mr. C. Fred Bergstrom and the Peterson Institute of International Economics highlighted a significant financial success story - the United States has undergone a dramatic improvement in the balance of our international trade, and increased exports are the reason. In fact, the editorial went on to say that "this export boom saved us from recession over the past year, and despite the recent financial turmoil, it is likely to continue doing so."
Mr. Bergstrom went on to include facts to back it up: 2 million new and high-paying jobs, about half of them from increased foreign sales in the manufacturing sector and a second-quarter growth rate for the U.S. economy revised up to 3.3 percent. And it was a record surge in net exports that "accounted for almost all of that expansion."
In the midst of financial turmoil - and there is turmoil - it is good to be reminded that expanded trade opportunities for the U.S. and our customers around the globe (after all, 96 percent of our customers live outside U.S. borders) has indeed, saved the day. And with expansion, will continue to do it.
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