U.S. says ASEAN countries, Vietnam major export marts
U.S. says ASEAN countries, Vietnam major export marts
WASHINGTON (AFP): U.S. Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said the
administration was expanding its target list of major export
markets to include Vietnam and five other rapidly growing Asian
economies.
The administration list of "big emerging markets" will be
expanded to include members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), Brown said Monday.
The administration, which has pushed trade as a key component
of its foreign policy, two years ago announced the creation of
the "Big Emerging Markets" list -- developing countries deemed to
have the biggest potential for U.S. exports.
Indonesia was on the original list, but the administration on
Monday announced it was adding the other ASEAN countries --
Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore -- along
with Vietnam, which will join ASEAN next week.
The administration's goal was to see that U.S. exports to
ASEAN countries equal or exceed those to China or Japan within 10
years, Brown said.
Adding Vietnam to the list of countries deemed to offer the
biggest opportunities to U.S. exporters came two weeks after
President Bill Clinton announced he was granting full diplomatic
recognition to Vietnam, a move welcomed by U.S. companies eager
for business there.
Brown's announcement was made at the start of a two-day
conference on the Big Emerging Markets hosted by the Commerce
Department and attended by 500 U.S. business executives and
government officials from countries on the list.
"These are the markets of tomorrow," Brown said.
Since 1987, exports have accounted for one-third of total
economic growth in the United States, he said.
"Export-related jobs have increased at six times the rate of
domestic employment growth," Brown said, answering critics who
have attacked the administration's free-trade philosophy as
flawed because it exposed American workers to increased
competition from low-wage developing nations.
In addition to the ASEAN nations, the other priority emerging
markets on the administration list are Argentina, Brazil, China,
Taiwan and Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Poland, South Africa, South
Korea and Turkey.