President Obama named eighteen business and labour leaders to the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee created on March 11, 2010 through his National Export Initiative executive order this morning.

The initiative calls for the doubling of exports from the United States by 2015 and according to the President's NEI order, "The NEI will help meet my Administration's goal of doubling exports over the next 5 years by working to remove trade barriers abroad, by helping firms -- especially small businesses -- overcome the hurdles to entering new export markets, by assisting with financing, and in general by pursuing a Government-wide approach to export advocacy abroad, among other steps."

Concern over slow jobs growth and the possibility of a double dip recession had the President on the offensive for the past week.  He reminded the audience what the economic landscape was like in the year before he took office and in the first months of his administration, losing over 700 thousand jobs in January 2009 alone. 

In juxtaposition to that reflection, President Obama noted that the economy had grown for three quarters in a row and, although slow, the private sector had begun adding jobs to the tune of 600 thousand jobs in the first six months of 2010.  As such, he attributed his administration's investments in the green technology industry, electricity infrastructure, broadband infrastructure, and most importantly making higher education more affordable as part of the way forward.

Today's announcement was meant to build on American exports, thereby boosting economic growth and spur job growth and according to the White House, exports have already increased 17% over the first four months of this year, but that he wasn't satisfied with the progress.  In what I can almost describe as a plea for reason, President Obama said that America had to look outside its borders to find new customers in the world's rapidly growing economies from South America, to Africa, to Asia. 

It remains to be seen if Congress can be convinced to invest more money in future growth industries from green tech to high speed rail, especially when partisan bickering has been growing the closer we get to the November midterms, but they remain some of the only legitimate options available for long term sustainable growth.  Obviously the majority of work from legislators will probably come during the new Congress, even as Obama urged them to quickly pass financial reform once they get back from the July 4th break.  However, maybe there is a chance that the current lame duck Congress can pull itself together long enough to consider some wise investments before they begin to take the proverbial axe spending across the board.