Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., along with Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., unveiled the “Export Promotion Act of 2012” in the Senate last week, a bipartisan bill that they hope will increase American export production and subsequently improve job creation in the private sector.
The bill would allow American companies to give input on how the U.S. Department of Commerce can improve export programs, such as finding opportunities for increased exports and reorganizing trade personnel to better serve the American economy abroad.
Blunt and Pryor’s act would also direct the Secretary of State to mandate that all U.S. ambassadors construct a plan for increasing U.S. exports to their respective nations.
Blunt, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion, said the main purpose of the act is not necessarily to expand the amount of American exports, bur rather to jolt domestic job creation.
“Our modern economy is built on our ability to fairly trade and compete with other nations,” Blunt said in a news release. “The more goods and services that American businesses export, the more they produce. I’m proud to co-sponsor this bipartisan bill, which will help promote American products, spur economic development and jump-start job creation here at home.”
Missouri, an international exporter of transportation equipment, minerals and ores, petroleum and coal products and prepackaged software, had $14.1 billion in exports last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Missouri’s international exports saw a 9 percent increase in 2011 and amassed the highest sum the state has seen in four years.
Nearly $5 billion of that total went to Canadian markets, followed by almost $1.5 billion to Mexico. China saw one of the largest increases in Missouri exports, taking in just more than $1 billion in 2011, a 17.6 percent increase from the previous year.
Missouri had more than 4,000 companies exporting products or services in 2009, and 85 percent of those were companies with fewer than 500 employees, according to the release.
