Secretary Evans promotes trade on US grassroots tour

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 07 Jun 2002 9:23

Earlier this week, US Commerce Secretary Donald Evans embarked on a nationwide tour to promote the benefits of expanded trade at the grassroots level.

Evans will be joined by other senior officials on this initiative, stopping at all 50 states to educate businessmen and women, workers, and investors about the positive impact international trade has on our economy.

The tour began on Wednesday when Secretary Evans hosted a Kansas City town hall meeting, addressing Kansas Governor Bill Graves and Kansas City, Missouri Mayor Kay Waldo Burns among others. “New markets open up new doors of opportunity for our businesses to grow and our workers to prosper,” Evans said. “Trade offers a higher quality of life to Americans and people around the world who are our trading partners. The next generation of workers in our country must not lose sight of that fact.”

To support his claim, he pointed out that exports accounted for more than one-fifth of the nation’s economic growth during the last decade, that trade supports 12 million US jobs, and that export-supported jobs pay nearly 18% more than the average wage.

Evans plans to personally visit 12 cities on the trade tour this year. Tentative sites include Tampa and Orlando, FL; Little Rock, AK; Albuquerque, NM; Manchester, NH; Minneapolis, MN.; Sioux Falls, SD; Milwaukee, WI; Seattle and Spokane, WA; and Des Moines, IA.

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