Obama Uses State of the Union to Promote Trade

Delivering his first official State of the Union address to Congress, President Barack Obama vowed to focus on creating jobs and improving the economy, but still offered an ambitious agenda that featured everything from energy to immigration reform to health care to trade.

Recognizing the need to increase American exports abroad, Obama announced the creation of a National Export Initiative, which he said would double America’s exports in five years and create two million jobs.

“We need to export more of our goods,” he said. “Because the more products we make and sell to other countries, the more jobs we support right here in America.”

Details on the initiative are still scant, and the White House’s Web site said that more information on the program would be released in coming weeks. Although the president may have offered a preview of how he plans to do that.

Later in his speech, he called for the completion of the Doha round of global trade talks. He also called on Congress to strengthen economic ties with Panama, Columbia and South Korea, an indication that the administration plans to move forward with those previously negotiated free trade agreements.

“We have to seek new markets aggressively, just as our competitors are,” he said. “If America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores. But realizing those benefits also means enforcing those agreements so our trading partners play by the rules. And that's why we'll continue to shape a Doha trade agreement that opens global markets, and why we will strengthen our trade relations in Asia and with key partners like South Korea and Panama and Colombia.”

Obama also called on the Senate to follow the lead of the lower chamber and pass a bill that would end incentives for companies that move jobs overseas and instead rewards American companies for creating American jobs.

“And to encourage these and other businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America.,” he said.

The president also slammed a recent Supreme Court decision that he said opened the door for foreign electioneering, telling Congress that it must pass law to reverse the decision.

“With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests -- including foreign corporations -- to spend without limit in our elections,” he said. “I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.”

Republicans were unimpressed, claiming that all the president was offering was more of the same repackaged.

“The American people were looking for President Obama to change course tonight, and they got more of the same job-killing policies instead,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) in a statement.

Obama, however, struck a more hopeful tone.

“We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment -- to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more,” he said.