Oxstones Investment Club™By Juliana Goldman and Nicholas Johnston, Bloomberg,
President Barack Obama returns home today from a ten-day visit to Asia after promising Japanese business leaders that the U.S. is “here to stay” in a region he said is integral to economic growth around the world.
“We don’t want to lose the opportunity to sell our goods and services in fast-growing markets,” he said in a speech yesterday to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation’s CEO Business Summit in Yokohama. “We don’t want to lose the opportunity to create new jobs back home. Strengthening our economic ties can be a win-win for all of our nations.”
The president called his engagement with Asia, which included visits to India, Indonesia and South Korea, part of a “jobs strategy,” important to his goal of increasing U.S. exports, boosting employment at home and contributing to the global economic recovery.
The president fell short in some of his goals on the trip. He failed to secure an agreement on concrete steps to rebalance the global economy at two-day summit of the Group of 20 nations in Seoul, and had to extend talks on securing a South Korean trade deal central to his goal of boosting U.S. exports.
‘Concrete Steps’
The APEC summit today ended with leaders pledging “concrete steps” toward creating a “comprehensive” regional free-trade agreement, without setting a target for achieving that goal.
Still, Obama was greeted warmly during a three-day stay in India where he secured $10 billion worth of commercial deals that the administration estimates will support 50,000 U.S. jobs. He also followed up on his outreach to the world’s Muslims with a speech in his boyhood home of Indonesia.
Even though Obama didn’t visit China on this trip, the country’s growing economic and diplomatic clout was underscored on each stop. Chinese officials rejected U.S. suggestions that the G-20 consider targets to rein in excessive current-account imbalances and criticized the Federal Reserve’s decision to pump $600 billion into the economy as an attempt to weaken the dollar.
Re-engaging Asia
The administration has made re-engaging Asia a priority since Obama entered office, particularly the 10 countries that make up the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The U.S. plans to fully join in 2011 the East Asian Summit and Obama will host next year’s APEC meeting in Hawaii.
“The United States has dramatically advanced its critical goals and strategic interests in the region,” saidTom Donilon, Obama’s national security adviser. “The region looks to the United States with respect to China, to engage in a positive constructive relationship with China.”
Obama spent the final days of the trip at the APEC summit meeting with Prime Ministers Naoto Kan of Japan, Julia Gillard of Australia and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev before flying back to Washington, D.C.
Obama today told Medvedev that getting Congress to ratify a bilateral nuclear arms reduction treaty before this year’s post- election session ends is “a top priority.”
This month’s Congressional victories by Republicans, who generally oppose the treaty, prompted a Russian parliamentary committee to withdraw its support while assessing whether the U.S. can pass it.
Japan’s Kan
After meeting with Kan, Obama told reporters the leaders discussed “the need to expand trade and open markets” in the region. Obama said he welcomed Japan’s interest in joining U.S.- led Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks that Kan has struggled to sell to members of his party.
While Obama tied his foreign trip to economic issues at home, it remains to be seen what effect it will have after his Democratic Party’s bruising losses in the Nov. 2 Congressional midterm elections. With voters angry over the slow pace of the economic recovery and high unemployment, Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and gained seats in the Senate.
Obama answered “No,” when asked whether the election results weakened him in global negotiations.
‘Wasn’t Any Easier’
“It wasn’t any easier to talk about currency when I had just been elected and my poll numbers were at 65 percent than it is now,” he said at a Nov. 11 news conference.
Obama disputed the notion that clashes over economic and monetary policy at the G-20 and the lack of a free-trade accord with South Korea represented setbacks for the U.S. He cited the G-20 agreement to develop “indicative guidelines” to identify economic imbalances and that currency valuations should be set by market forces.
“Instead of hitting home runs, sometimes we’re going to hit singles,” Obama said. “But they’re really important singles.”
He said a revised trade deal with South Korea is still “achievable” and both countries will strive to finish negotiations in the coming weeks. With almost $68 billion in trade between the nations, the deal would be the U.S.’s largest since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
“I want to make sure this deal is balanced,” Obama said. “I want trade agreements that work for the other side, but my main job is to look out for the American people, American workers and American businesses.”
Obama said in Japan that Asia’s economy is expected to grow by 50 percent within five years — something that will provide job opportunities in the U.S. He told Japanese chief executives gathered at the conference that he makes “no apologies” for trying to bring jobs to the U.S. through trade and that economic growth in any country is good for others.
Tags: Asia trip, Asian markets, currencies, export markets, Free Trade Agreement, INDIA, Indonesia, Japan, jobs, jobs strategy, president obama, regional trade, south korea