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.