PRESIDENT'S EXPORT COUNCIL
Room 4830
Department of Commerce
14th & Constit0ution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC
Thursday,
January 18, 2007
The meeting was convened, pursuant to notice,
at 10:10 a.m., MR. J.W. MARRIOTT, JR., Chairman,
presiding.
APPEARANCES:
EXECUTIVE BRANCH
THE HONORABLE CARLOS M. GUTIERREZ
Secretary of Commerce
THE HONORABLE ELAINE CHAO
Secretary of Labor
THE HONORABLE JAMES LAMBRIGHT
Chairman and President
Export-Import Bank of the United States
THE HONORABLE FRANKLIN L. LAVIN
Under Secretary of Commerce for
International Trade
MR. FLOYD GAIBLER
Deputy Under Secretary of Agriculture
for Farm and Foreign Agriculture
THE HONORABLE ALBERT A. FRINK
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Manufacturing and Services
THE HONORABLE MICHAEL P. JACKSON
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
THE HONORABLE STEVEN PRESTON
Small Business Administrator
THE HONORABLE DANIEL SULLIVAN
Assistant Secretary of State for Economic,
Energy and Business Affairs
PRIVATE SECTOR
MR. J.W. MARRIOTT, JR.
Chairman and CEO
Marriott International, Inc.
Chairman, President's Export Council
MS. BETTY MANETTA
President and CEO
Argent Associates, Inc.
MR. WARREN R. STALEY
Chairman and CEO
Cargill, Inc.
MS. CECILIA OCHOA LEVINE
President
MFI International Manufacturing, LLC
MS. SHARON ALLEN
Chairman
Deloitte & Touche
MR. JOHN S. CHEN
Chairman and CEO
Sybase, Inc.
MR. JAMES F. DICKE, II
Chairman and CEO
Crown Equipment Corporation
MR. MICHAEL L. ESKEW
Chairman and CEO
UPS
MR. PRAKASH PURAM
President and CEO
iXmatch Inc.
MR. TIMOTHY P. SMUCKER
Chairman and CEO
The J.M. Smucker Company
MR. SEAN HEALEY
President and CEO
Affiliated Managers Group, Inc.
MR. LEE STYSLINGER, III
President and CEO
Altec, Inc.
DR. PAUL S. HSU
Chairman and CEO
Total Parts Plus, Inc.
MR. JUAN CARLOS ITURREGUI
President
Foundation for Inter American Development
MR. LENNY SANDS
Chairman and CEO
Alchemy Worldwide, LLC
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
THE HONORABLE PHIL ENGLISH
U.S. Representative from the
3rd District of Pennsylvania
THE HONORABLE JAY INSLEE
U.S. Representative from the
1st District of Washington
I N D E X
PAGE
AGENDA ITEM
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER
Mr. J.W. Marriott, Jr., Chairman5
REMARKS
The Honorable Carlos M. Gutierrez,
Secretary of Commerce7
REMARKS ON TRIP TO CHINA
The Honorable Elaine Chao,
Secretary of Labor15
REMARKS ON TRIP TO CHINA
The Honorable James Lambright
Chairman, Export-Import Bank21
Q&A, GENERAL DISCUSSION ON CHINA23
REMARKS ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE TRAVEL
INITIATIVE (WHITI) and the RICE-CHERTOFF
INITIATIVE
The Honorable Michael P. Jackson,
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security31
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SERVICES REPORT
Mr. Michael L. Eskew, Subcommittee Chairman
Presentation of Proposed Letter on the
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative39
DISCUSSION ON WHTI LETTER AND RICE-CHERTOFF
INITIATIVE42
REMARKS ON INDIA AND THE INDIA TRADE MISSION
The Honorable Franklin L. Lavin,
Under Secretary for International Trade49
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRADE PROMOTION AND
NEGOTIATIONS REPORT
Mr. Warren Staley,
Subcommittee Vice Chairman54
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND
COMPETITIVENESS REPORT
Ms. Betty Manetta, Subcommittee Chairman
Presentation of Proposed Letter on
Radio Frequency Identification58
GENERAL DISCUSSION61
ADJOURN64
P R O C E E D I N G S
MEETING CALLED TO ORDER
By Chairman J.W. Marriott, Jr.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Good morning, and welcome to our winter meeting of the President's Export Council. I now want to call the meeting officially to order.
First, I'd like to welcome our two new members of the PEC, Juan Carlos Iturregui of the Foundation for Inter American Development, and Lenny Sands of Alchemy, to the Council. We look forward to working with you on the PEC, and welcome to you all.
At our meeting in July of '06, we approved three letters of recommendation: first, the U.S.-Asian Free Trade Agreement, we had a recommendation on Avian Flu Preparedness, and Immigration, and had some great discussions around those issues.
We met later by teleconference and approved the letter on the APEC Summit in November, and we enter 2007 with a new environment in Washington, a new Congress, and a stalled Doha Round. But I think we are all optimistic when it comes to trade that we can continue to get a lot done, increasing our exports and growing our economy, promoting fair trade, and balancing security with the free flow of goods and people.
This cooperation with the government and the private sector is what makes the President's Export Council and other public/private collaborative efforts so important.
As we move forward in today's meeting, we will discuss two of the most important emerging markets in the world, China and India. The Department of Commerce has recently led trade missions to both these countries, and in December started a strategic dialogue with China.
I look forward to hearing from the administration here today on the China and India missions, and the outlook for American business in these markets.
We are joined today by Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, who led the trade mission to China in November which included a lot of our members. It is an honor and a privilege to welcome Secretary Gutierrez.
Mr. Secretary?
REMARKS
The Honorable Carlos M. Gutierrez,
Secretary of Commerce
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to start by swearing in our two new members, Juan Carlos Iturregui and Lenny Sands. If you could join me, please.
(Whereupon, the new members were duly sworn.)
(Applause)
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Marriott. I want to welcome, formally, Juan Carlos Iturregui and Lenny Sands, and thank you for serving. Welcome to the President's Export Council.
I also would like to welcome some special guests that we have here today. Congressman Inslee, thank you for being here and your continued interest in this council, in exporting, and in trade in general. Thank you.
Secretary Chao is with us today. I want to thank you also for your time and your interest. Secretary Chao will be discussing some matters with us, and will take the microphone in a few minutes. I appreciate that.
Also, Deputy Secretary Jackson, thank you for being here and touching on this very, very important subject that is of interest to, obviously the business community, and all those concerned with national security. So, thank you again for your time.
I also want to thank Ambassador Gordon of Argentina for being here. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: And, also, Mrs. Laurie Coleman, wife of Senator Norm Coleman, is here. Thank you.
(Applause)
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: And thanks to everyone for being here, and those of you of the President's Export Council for serving.
I want to just touch on several topics, starting out with the economy, which is, I know, of interest to everyone. We continue to have solid performance, solid news on the economy, in spite of the fact that our environment over the last five years has been challenging and we have been up against some very specific and large obstacles. I am proud to say that our economy was able to withstand that and grow in a very, very competitive worldwide environment.
I will just give you some facts. GDP growth over the last four quarters is 3 percent. We have now grown 20 quarters consecutively, which is a great string of uninterrupted growth.
We have created, since August of 2003--and I say "we", the business sector, entrepreneurs, workers, the economy at large--over 7 million jobs since August of 2003, and that is more than the combined jobs created in the European Union and Japan combined.
So, again, in a very competitive global environment we are not only holding our own, but actually delivering better performance than any other G-7 economy.
Our unemployment is 4.5 percent. That is below the average of the last four decades. So not only are we growing, unemployment is at record levels. Our inflation rate is about 2.5 percent, 2.6. In fact, today is CPI day, so that number will be updated at some point today. So, a combination of growth, keeping inflation in check, and unemployment low. That combination, I think, is frankly the envy of the developed world.
Real after-tax income, take-home pay, real spending money is up 9.7 percent on a per capita basis since the President took office. So, overall a very, very healthy environment, again, at a time when competition around the world has never been greater.
We believe that there are two policy initiatives that have driven that. One, is keeping taxes low. It is the whole philosophy that money in the hands of business and in the hands of consumers is spent and invested more wisely than in the hands of the Federal Government, and I think we are proving that once again.
The other part of our growth and our performance is trade. We are doing more trade with the world than ever before. In fact, the world at large, the world economy, is now about 25 percent driven by trade; it was 17 percent only 10 years ago. So the whole world is trading more with each other than ever before in our history.
During this administration we have signed more free trade agreements than all other administrations combined and our exports, on an annual basis, have grown about 6 percent since the President took office. If you look at the last two years, in 2006 our exports were up 13 percent, and in 2005 they were up over 10 percent.
So what you are seeing is our free trade agreements adding scale and adding momentum and, over several years, really taking hold. Some of the agreements we have -- whether it be Chile, we are off to a great start in CAFTA, Singapore, Australia, NAFTA continues to do well.
Our trade agreements -- as I mentioned this morning, 7 percent of the world economy is represented by free trade agreements with the U.S., but we do over 40 percent of our exports with those countries.
So, if there is ever any doubt as to whether trade works in free trade agreements, and engaging the rest of the world, just look at the facts and look at the numbers.
China is obviously very, very important. Our exports to China are up 33 percent, last year they were up 20 percent, so 33 on top of 20 percent. Imports from China, up 18 percent. So we are outpacing imports by almost two times.
Our trade deficit, importantly, in November fell for the third consecutive month, so a decline in the actual trade deficit, which, again, is just phenomenal if you think about, we are outgrowing the big economies in the world such as Europe, such as Japan, so they are able to export to us a lot more than we are able to export to them. So, very, very strong performance.
We have two free trade agreements that have been signed that we are hoping to get approval for over the next several months, Peru and Colombia. Then, very importantly, getting trade promotion authority reauthorized for the President.
There is too much at stake, there is too much working on trade, to backtrack now. An important aspect of continuing to engage the world and lead and pass trade agreements, such as Korea and Malaysia, which we also have pending, will be to give the President trade promotion authority.
Also, very importantly, is that we continue to seek an agreement on the Doha Round of discussions. As you know, we have a very, very aggressive proposal on the table. We are waiting for some positive retroactive proposals from Europe, primarily, and the G-20 countries.
So, just so you know, we continue to push forward on Doha and we would like to have very specific progress by the time we have TPA reauthorized. So, that continues to be an important priority.
A comment on China and the strategic dialogue we just had, the first strategic economic dialogue with China. Just to give you a sense of why China is so important, twenty years ago we were talking about a market that was worth $300 billion. Today, this is an economy worth $2.6 trillion.
So, it is the fastest-growing economy in the developing world and we have a very important stake in that economy. China is now our second-largest trading partner, just to give you a sense of the scale and the magnitude.
We had a trade mission in November to China, and then we followed up with the strategic economic dialogue. Many of the members of the PEC were with us. And just to give you kind of a report card on that, we have done $12 billion of business as a result of that trade mission. So as I was saying today, we got a good return on investment on our hotel and our plane trips.
(Laughter)
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: I thank those of you who were there for your support. The strategic economic dialogue, as you know, will have a second follow-up meeting in May here in Washington. This is the first time we have had almost a cabinet-to-cabinet meeting.
We had seven cabinet members from China, seven cabinet members from the U.S., and a great time to talk about big-picture items, where we are going, where we are taking our economies, and how we can get there together. Extremely valuable.
The meeting in May will lead into a very detailed agenda for the JCCT. So, we are going to continue keeping it at a high level and let JCCT get into the specific tactical items, but keep the strategic dialogue going with China.
So, a lot going on. I want to thank you for everything that you're doing. Exports are absolutely critical to our economy. Trade is critical to our economy.
Just the mere fact that we are having this meeting and that we are getting into topics of interest sends a strong message that our future is very much tied up in trade, and this is no time to backtrack and no time for protectionism. If anything, it is a time to step it up and increase our engagement with the rest of the world, and I thank you for your leadership in ensuring that that takes place.
Mr. Chairman, thank you. I will stop there and turn it back over to you.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
It is a real pleasure to again welcome Secretary Chao. She was, of course, on the trip to China. We welcome any comments and ideas that you have.
REMARKS ON TRIP TO CHINA
The Honorable Elaine Chao,
Secretary of Labor
SECRETARY CHAO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it is wonderful to see all of you, so, welcome. You have got a great chairman, and also a great presiding host as well.
Secretary Gutierrez and I, and four other cabinet secretaries, as you heard, went to China on December 12-14. It was to meet our counterparts in China. The purpose was to address some of the longer term structural issues which impact our two countries, with an aim toward resolving some of the shorter term issues.
Secretary Paulson really deserves a great deal of credit for taking the lead on this. He has been to China for more than 70 trips, so he really understands Chinese culture and the Chinese political and economic situation there.
He realized that there were short-term issues that could not be addressed without understanding some of the longer-term structural barriers and concerns in China, so he started this strategic economic dialogue, suggested it to the President, and the two presidents, China and America, really thought it was a good idea. So, we were the first delegation that was sent over.
If I may, I would just like to talk a little bit about what we discussed, and then also add a little bit of a local flavor to kind of give you a view as to how the meetings went.
First of all, I thought the meetings and discussions were actually quite productive and very informative. The Chinese obviously noted repeatedly the very high level of delegation. They are really into symbolism and into respect, so it meant a great deal to them that the United States has sent such a high-level delegation. It was the first time in U.S.-China relations that such a high-level delegation has been sent over.
The Chinese also spent a great deal of time preparing for this visit, and you saw it in the detailed arrangements in which they took great care. Apparently the Vice Premier, Madam Wu Yi, actually took a look at the menu, she was that detailed in the arrangements, and she struck out sea cucumbers, for example, because she knew that Americans did not like sea cucumbers.
(Laughter)
SECRETARY CHAO: But that is an indication of the kind of detail of preparation.
They also--and this is for future business men who go there--were very much text-driven. This is a source of concern for Americans, because we like spontaneous discussion. So, there was a concern whether there was going to be spontaneous, back and forth.
They like prepared text, not perhaps for the reasons that you think, but because many times their English is not good and they actually want Power Point presentations and texts so that, they say, they can take it back and study it afterwards.
They were a little bit disappointed that the American delegation did not have prepared text and did not have Power Point presentations to give to them so that they could go home and take the materials and study. Now, of course, we all know we do not want homework.
(Laughter)
SECRETARY CHAO: So, I thought that was an interesting cultural difference.
Also, a lot of times when we spoke extemporaneously, it was hard for the Chinese interpreters to keep track. So, as much as we think they are a sophisticated country, when Americans speak extemporaneously, interpretation was not as good as when there was prepared text, where the Chinese side had time to prepare and translate fully.
Now, on to the details of the discussion. Secretary Paulson was absolutely on target when he said that we needed to discuss the long-term structural issues with China for the benefit of U.S.-China relations.
He was very, very savvy in presenting this issue of the need to increase domestic consumption, the need to reduce trade barriers, the need to reduce the trade deficit. He couched it as how this would be a good thing for China. He did not say it is, of course, good for us. And we said that as well. But he said, most of all, it is not good for China to embark upon an export-oriented economy.
To that, he brought Chairman of the Fed, Ben Bernanke, who gave one of the best economic lectures about the linkages in a free enterprise system, you know, what do all of these linkages mean for the wealth and for the prosperity of the economy? So, Ben Bernanke's lecture on how economies have to evolve and an export-oriented economy is not sustainable in the long term.
What we were concerned about from the Labor Department, was to help China increase domestic consumption. China has a very, very difficult time increasing domestic consumption now because they have no social safety net to speak of; there is practically no unemployment insurance, and there are basically no pensions. Oh, excuse me. They do have a pension system: it is called a family. So, they have basically no confidence--I said that tongue-in-cheek.
(Laughter)
SECRETARY CHAO: Basically, there is no long-term social safety net in China, so the Chinese population, the workforce, has no confidence in spending.
So as much as we may encourage them to spend, unless the Chinese do something to instill and establish a long-term safety social net that includes unemployment insurance, some kind of wage insurance, some kind of pension insurance, it is going to be very, very hard for the Chinese people to have the confidence to spend more.
So, we are working with the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to talk about how to implement and establish a social safety net program, a pension system, so that the Chinese people would have greater confidence to spend more freely during their working years.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Secretary. We appreciate your insights very, very much.
Export-Import Bank Chairman Jim Lambright is here. He was on the strategic economic dialogue trip. So, would you like to offer any comments?
REMARKS ON TRIP TO CHINA
By Honorable James Lambright,
Chairman, Export-Import Bank
MR. LAMBRIGHT: Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Since Secretary Chao gave such a terrific overview, perhaps I will just speak to a specific outcome that serves as an example of what this thing was all about.
As Secretary Gutierrez said in Beijing, the key to addressing the trade imbalance is not less importing, but more exporting from the U.S. So to that end, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the China Export-Import Bank were able to announce a pre-negotiated form of credit documentation to facilitate the financing of U.S. exports to China, afforded by a Chinese Government guarantee.
The first applications that we have had under that facility since returning are for U.S. medical equipment. The Chinese have also expressed a strong interest in other kinds of high-tech equipment, like environment equipment.
So this program really fits the spirit of the SED. It helps with concerns about the trade imbalance. It helps U.S. firms make sales to China. It helps the Chinese bring equipment in to address their development priorities.
So, it was gratifying to be able to get this accomplished under the umbrella of the SED, and we hope that, with them visiting in May and this being an ongoing exercise, that there will be more opportunities to help U.S. firms facilitate sales into China.
Thank you very much.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
Q & A GENERAL DISCUSSION ON CHINA
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Are there any questions for our three participants, Secretary Gutierrez, Secretary Chao?
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: I have a question, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Yes.
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your comments. I just had a thought. It is really not a question, I suppose. But I was talking to some energy company innovators who believe that China could be one of our greatest markets for the new energy innovation companies that are going to be coming online, and we are really excited about some of the good things we hear the President may say about energy in the State of the Union address.
I just wondered if there was some avenue that our group could encourage the development of that market for our new clean energy companies--solar, wind, clean coal, you name it. I just wonder if there is any way we can give a boost to that effort, highlight that effort, use our contacts in China to encourage them to look to us. Just a thought. I do not have an answer, but it is just a thought.
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: I think it is an excellent point. And they talked a lot about, one, the need they are going to have for energy long term, but also the need for clean energy. As you well know, they have a tremendous problem of pollution and environmental waste as they are growing.
So, we have talked about, how do we address that? Is it is a trade mission of specific companies that are actually in that business? Putting companies in touch with the government of China? But you are absolutely right.
That is an area where we can grow tremendously over the next decade or so. I think the Chinese know it. They have actually allocated money in their budget for it and they are in the market. So, that is a great point.
MR. LAMBRIGHT: I would simply add, Congressman, that the timing is perfect for this kind of initiative because of the Olympics that they are hosting. They are trying to show to the world that they are being environmentally responsible as they grow. So, I think that, as the Secretary said, they are paying a great deal of attention to this and trying to make sound decisions.
If there are particular groups or companies that are you are thinking of, the Ex-Im Bank has special terms and products for environmentally beneficial exports, and I would be glad to speak with you about that.
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: Well, here is an idea. And I have not thought through this at all. But what if our group recommended to the President that he invite China to a Clean Energy Summit, with the appropriate Federal officials representing the United States, and I do not know how high that would be.
But this is just such a pressing global need. If China does not develop clean energy technologies, to put it politely, we are sort of doomed when it comes to global warming. We have a tremendous opportunity to expand our exports there, companies like NanoSolar that are doing great solar stuff in Palo Alto. Green Point Technologies. They're doing coal gassification.
I just think it is a great moment for these two countries to get together on this, and maybe we could explore recommending that to the President. Nixon went to China with ping-pong; we can have a President go there with clean energy.
(Laughter)
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: So I'm throwing this idea out. At the right moment, maybe our group can consider it.
SECRETARY LAVIN: Congressman, on precisely that point, the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency were two of the cabinet representatives at the strategic economic dialogue, and each of them made, I thought, a very thoughtful presentation on precisely your set of points to their counterparts.
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: Okay.
SECRETARY LAVIN: So that is illustrative of the value of these kind of gatherings and some of the, just, consciousness-raising. But I think we are at a point where that is a very useful step.
On a more practical level, the Commerce Department is sponsoring a clean energy trade mission to China, I think it is late summer, this calendar year. So, I think we are all lined up on this.
If you have specific recommendations of companies that want to be on the mission, please have your staff e-mail me and we will make sure they are on board. We are already into sort of marketing and transactional promotion in China.
CONGRESSMAN INSLEE: Okay. I will do that. Thank you, sir.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
Are there other questions or comments on China? Yes?
MR. PURAM: Mr. Secretary, from what you observed on the trip and all that we know, how much of this is a replay of what we've been through with Japan, going from an export-oriented to a consumption-oriented, and now being concerned about intellectual property. Is it just a matter of evolution or can we actually expect a better situation with the Chinese?
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: I think it is very much an evolution and a tremendous transformation, I mean, $300 billion to $2.5 trillion. One of the aspects of their economy that is also evolving and changing is per capita income. So while we want them to consume more internally, that has to happen as per capita income increases and, of course, it is growing.
So what we are seeing is almost, I would say, very similar to the Japanese model, very export-oriented, commodity-oriented, starting to move up toward higher value added, doing a little bit of innovation on their own, increasing per capita income which, in turn, allows them to depend less on exports and more on internal consumption.
Something that Secretary Chao mentioned which is critical, is a government-sponsored retirement plan. One of the reasons they save so much money, is that they know they do not have a retirement plan.
So, you have heard of savings being in the 30, 40, 50 percent range. That will also change over time as the government starts funding, and even private businesses start funding, 401(k)s and retirement plans.
So what we are seeing is a tremendous transformation. We often lose patience with China because we want them to make progress tomorrow, but over the last 10 years it has been just quite a change. I think we should expect the same type of change over the next 10 years.
It is almost disorderly growth, and what we need is, as the Congressman was mentioning, energy technology to ensure that the growth can be sustained, and a little bit more of reliable, predictable growth, which they are trying to manage. So, I think not only is it evolution, I think it is a transformation of an economy that is happening unlike anything you have ever seen.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Other comments, questions?
MR. SANDS: Mr. Secretary, you are talking about consumption. Our sense from the branded or marketing world is that Chinese consumers are able to purchase pirated product on the local level at a very affordable price. So, I think from the export community, it is looked at as a tremendous loss of revenue.
So are there ways that we can create some education or some pressure for them to understand the justification, that we do not ship the goods out of the country, they are staying in the country, and therefore the counterfeiting issue is not as big an issue? How do we help to try to present our case in a very strong way?
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: Well, the intellectual property rights is probably the number-one point on every agenda we have with the Chinese Government. So, we believe they are moving to take initiative on their own. They now have 50 offices around the country for intellectual property rights vigilance, as well as training and consulting for their companies. We know they have shut down some factories. We know that they are putting tougher laws on their books.
One thing I would say, is from the standpoint of the private sector, is anything that each company can do to bring awareness to our government and their government of the specific brand -- we just had a case on Starbucks, which Starbucks won. We had a case for Pfizer, which Pfizer won.
I can tell you, ten years ago I lost a case in China, a trademark case, which I do not believe I would lose today. So, we just need to keep the pressure on with government officials, and I would urge individual companies to do the same.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Okay. Thank you.
Anybody else?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: All right. Well, one of the letters we are going to talk about today is the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, the WHTI. It is an item that the Council has addressed on the free flow of goods and people, and that WHTI and its effective implementation is of tremendous interest to all of us, particularly, I think, in the travel and tourism industry.
Joining us today we have Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson of Homeland Security. He is the Department's chief operating officer in charge of day-to-day operations, including the implementation of the Rice-Chertoff Initiative and the WHTI program.
It is an honor to have him here with us, and it is a pleasure to hear from you, Secretary Jackson.
REMARKS ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE TRAVEL INITIATIVE
(WHTI) AND THE RICE-CHERTOFF INITIATIVE
Honorable Michael P. Jackson,
Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: Chairman Marriott, thank you for having me here today. I appreciate the invitation. Secretary Gutierrez, I appreciate your hosting this group. Secretary Chao, Congressman Inslee, and colleagues here, I am grateful to be here.
I am going to just talk very briefly, because I think Mike is going to give a presentation about the letter, and then maybe we can have an iterative discussion around that.
Security issues at the border and making a free flow of goods and people across our borders is a hugely important priority to this Department, balancing the phenomenally important priority of securing our borders and making sure that we manage our border security issues in a responsible and aggressive fashion.
So, striking this balance is what we are all about. Listening to the views of our private sector colleagues, in particular, is an indispensable part of finding that balance point in this endeavor of ours.
In WHTI, we are, I think, making good progress. The first part of this is the implementation of air WHTI, which is to say the requirement to have a passport to travel within the western hemisphere for our citizens coming and going, and for other western hemisphere citizens coming and going.
I have shared with some some early numbers on this. Just three or four months ago, passport usage, for example, for U.S. citizens was about 78 percent coming in for western hemisphere flights. In the first part of January, January 8-14, 94 percent of Americans presented passports, 96 percent of Canadians, and virtually 100 percent of Mexicans.
This shows that as we approach this deadline, I think we are not going to have a melt-down. I think we do have broad absorption of the requirement here and a strong commitment on our part not to be reflexively harsh in terms of how we manage the individual cases as we get to this particular deadline.
I think the deadline that approaches a year from now is the more challenging part of it, which is our land and sea implementation. Again, we are committed to make certain that that is done in a fashion with technology, with training, with outreach to the public sector, to specific partnerships.
And, Mr. Chairman, I would thank you publicly for the work that you are doing in this area with your corporation to make sure that your employees are getting passports and understanding these requirements.
There are many of these efforts that we want to foment and help support across the economy here and abroad. I would just say today that Secretary Chertoff sends his greetings.
He is meeting with his counterpart on this today, and this is a very large part of the agenda about Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. relations on WHTI. So, Secretary Chertoff is meeting with Minister Day today exactly on these issues to try to make certain there is really good blood flow and communications.
I think that we are going to implement technology investments cautiously, but aggressively, this year. We are going to take open architecture standards to drive this. We are not driving to find bleeding edge solutions, we are taking current RFID platforms and extending them to our WHTI implementation.
We are working closely with NIST, for example, here at Commerce to try to make sure that these standards are known and promulgated clearly for all of our identity management cards and programs within the Department. So, I think we have a path ahead.
The State Department will begin issuing the passport card, which is a proof of citizenship, including the RFID capability, to expedite you through lands at the land borders. Beginning this summer, we will expect to see this implementation and card issuance working.
So I think we have to just keep coming back to the business community especially and saying, hey, we want to work with you. We are listening to you. We are making this in a sensible and deliberate way and we are exquisitely attuned to the fact that we have to balance the security imperative, which is real, with the facilitation mandate, which is also important to us.
Mr. Chairman, you asked about a couple of other issues in your kind invitation for me to be here today. One of them, is an update on the Rice-Chertoff Initiative. There is a particular part of this that I want to call out, and I am grateful for John and a couple of others who are helping us try to implement Rice-Chertoff Initiatives with some good private sector counsel.
We have committed to try to make border points of entry operate a little bit more efficiently and more customer-focused. We have instituted a primary look-out override program at CBP. What does that mean? It is another acronym at DHS.
But essentially what it says, if you are a business person who has come to the country and we are finding a glitch with identifying you falsely with the name of someone else who is on a watch-list or as a lookout for us, we are able, administratively, to go back in and correct that on our system so that it just overrides the whole pull into secondary screening.
This was a pilot initially at some airport points of entry in the country during this past year and we have expanded it to land ports of entry. I think this is actually helping us solve some of the exact type of facilitation problems that the private sector has raised with us.
We are also expanding our efforts to scrub the "no fly" list. We recently completed a major look through the whole list and took some problems that were there off the table by reconciling those issues.
We have put in place technology training and additional people at several airports around the country to try to take as a pilot in Houston, and in the Dulles Airport here in town, an effort to say, let us look at the point of arrival from the perspective of a foreign visitor, and let us look at signage, greeters, special information, help that we can provide.
So in those two airports, I think we are learning valuable lessons in a pilot that was undertaken this year to help make that more customer-focused and customer-friendly.
So on a multiplicity of fronts under the Rice-Chertoff Initiative, we are trying to get the picture here that in order to have a strong export economy and a strong import economy, we have to understand how best to balance that security and facilitation.
I would just make one last sort of quick point, which is, the President recently spoke to the question of visa waiver program issues for countries that have been attempting to become parties to the visa waiver program, and that is administered in conjunction with DHS and the State Department.
The visa waiver program was initiated as an effort where the focus was really principally on making economic concerns about migration to the United States, where people would come and over-stay a visa and become a burden on the country.
Those clusters of issues for the visa waiver program are really preeminent in the design of the program. 9/11 has changed our focus on this to a security focus that we have to balance with this other set of issues.
What the President announced, and what we will be working with Congress on, is an attempt to try to look at the variables by which a country can enter, in a somewhat more flexible fashion, in exchange for commitments for enhanced security on the part of that country. So, for example, clarity about reporting lost and stolen passports.
We are looking at the Australian model. It's a program called Electronic Travel Authorization, whereby people file, in advance on travel to Australia on the Internet, a very simple form that allows us to be able to evaluate, in advance of travel, any security risks, but to facilitate movement through the Customs procedures when you get here.
We are looking at several of these types of security measures that the President hopes to have Congress endorse, and then give us some additional flexibility so that other countries can enjoy the benefits of a visa waiver program type of access.
I would say, in a post-London train bombing environment, we are all very much attuned to the fact that so-called clean-skin terrorists, or home-grown terrorists pose a problem to us in our current visa waiver program countries, as well as potential entrants under this program. So we would want, ultimately, to harmonize these enhanced security measures across the full spectrum of programs.
Perhaps I would just stop there with a commitment to say that the types of things that are in your draft letter from this committee are very, very valuable to us, and we are in very close alignment with DHS.
I would hazard to speak for my State Department colleagues as well, and my Commerce Department colleagues, that it is strongly in intellectual alignment with where you all are headed.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. We have a letter, as has been discussed. Before I open the floor for discussion I would like Mike Eskew, the chairman of our Subcommittee on Services, to present the letter.
SUBCOMMITTEE ON SERVICES REPORT
By Mr. Michael L. Eskew, Subcommittee Chairman
Presentation of Proposed Letter on the
Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative
MR. ESKEW: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Services Subcommittee will submit a letter that addresses the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, WHTI. It is behind Tab 4 in your book if you want to read along.
You heard the context of WHTI from Secretary Jackson, and I will focus my comments on just the recommendations of the letter.
First and foremost, it is important to note that our subcommittee fully supports the security objectives of WHTI. We simply want to encourage effective implementation in order to have a minimal impact on the movement of goods and people across those borders.
Recommendation 1: We encourage the implementation that was executed in concert with Mexico and Canada. We believe that a unilateral approach will not be as effective.
Recommendation 2: We encourage government to bolster communications efforts. We fear that many potential travelers are unaware of these new requirements.
Recommendation 3: Increase the focus on technology that you spoke about. Companies like mine, UPS, have invested many resources into technology so we can provide pre-arrival customs information to speed goods across borders. We hope to work closely with Customs officials to best make use of that technology.
Recommendation 4: Adequate resources must be allocated to DHS and the State Department to implement this endeavor.
Recommendation 5: Focus on the preparedness at the border. We have heard anecdotes of long wait times at the border. New programs have been implemented and we encourage border agents to adequately test the program before we launch it.
Recommendation 6: The "PASS card" or other passport alternatives are a good idea to alleviate some of the passport concerns, but we encourage adequate training of agents in proper technologies to process these new cards.
In sum, Mr. Chairman, we agree that our national security is of utmost importance and we applaud the U.S. Government for its continued diligence. We urge careful implementation of the WHTI program to minimize the risk to the free flow of goods and people across those borders.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to submit that letter for approval, and we would welcome any comments.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you, Mike. I would like to note, the copies of the letter are in the members' books. They are posted online and they are available outside the room for the public.
DISCUSSION ON THE WHTI LETTER
AND RICE-CHERTOFF INITIATIVE
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: I would like to open the floor now for comments and any questions for Deputy Secretary Jackson.
MS. OCHOA LEVINE: I have a comment. Mr. Chairman and everyone in this room, I would like to emphasize the importance on moving forward on facilitating these new programs to be started, especially for us in the border states where probably 40 percent of the economy depends on our neighbors to the south.
We have been always great trading partners and it is very important that we have security, but at the same time that we have the ability to continue having that relationship between the two countries, Mexico and the United States.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
Any other questions?
MR. SANDS: Mr. Secretary, I am curious as to what outreach, or have you been working on outreach, to industry and to the public? Are you using the Web as a source to reach large groups of people?
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: Yes. I am going to give myself not an "A" effort here yet. We have the major implementation, the hard challenge, really, in this land border implementation, the bulk of which begins mid-point this year and goes through the beginning of next year until we get it right, until we get the penetration and saturation level for the distribution of the PASS cards and passports for daily life. We are looking at some innovative ways to go into businesses, for example, in border states. I come from a border state, Texas.
It is important for us to try to take the business community that is most directly impacted and work on an individualized basis with them to help them get PASS cards. For example, if they need them, or if they needed a Nexus card, or another Century or fast program card, we can facilitate that.
In addition, I think we need more broad-based public communications in which we ask our private sector colleagues to help generally spread the requirements across the community and to find ways to do it.
We are open to things like setting up enrollment centers in border areas where we think we might have a high penetration for applications and seeing if we can facilitate that.
So we are really open to all suggestions and to a multiplicity of ways to do this right. The State Department is a great partner in this with us, and is also eager to make sure that we take their part of this equation and work it well.
So, we are open for business in terms of listening to good ideas here, and we are already traveling down that road a far piece with the State Department and us.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: When will the first PASS card be issued?
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: I would think by late this summer, we'll have PASS cards in the hands of citizens.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Late summer this year?
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: Yes, sir.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Good.
Are there other questions, comments?
MR. FRINK: Yes. Deputy Secretary, Michael, you mentioned about the hospitality that is worked on at the port of entry into the country.
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: Yes.
MR. FRINK: I was wondering. I hear these comments when I travel, that we do not always have the friendliest and warmest of faces in greetings, in signage, and what have you.
Are you utilizing private sector expertise to provide some of that standard of welcoming "warm and fuzzy" that is often needed in what is sometimes a very difficult situation, where you're trying to meet security standards and at the same time create a "we're glad to have you"?
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: Yes. At the risk of saying this sitting next to the Secretary, to twist an old Washington saw, I like to tell my guys coming in from the private sector, that I'm from the private sector and I'm here to help.
(Laughter)
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: I believe that the private sector does have a huge set of experience to help us communicate more effectively. So, for example, in these two airports where, as John knows, we are doing some test pilot work, we are taking some private sector help on signage, on training of how you deal with cultural norms of individuals who are going to be greeting these people coming across our borders, and how we work with the airport authority so that the airport authority is making a contribution here as well.
We just recently completed, at TSA, comprehensive training, for example, about how to make sure that we are respectfully dealing with Muslim travelers through the TSA screening facilities.
It is very detailed work which we did in conjunction with some private sector colleagues who helped us do this, academic colleagues who helped us do this. So, we are in a constant mode of looking for any good idea, and stealing it as fast as we can grab hold of it.
MS. OCHOA LEVINE: Have you considered infomercials, which are very effective?
DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON: No, I have to say that is not one that's on the current list. But we have done a series of public service ads, for example, on our overall readiness campaigns for the Department, so we are not invisible on the television set, but I haven't got infomercials on my screen, I have to confess. Maybe we should.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: John?
MR. CHEN: Deputy Secretary, thank you, since you looked my way a number of times. I have been very fortunate to co-chair the Rice-Chertoff Advisory Committee. So for my colleagues in the private sector, I came to the committee with loads of questions.
I found out--I think one time I had a conversation with Secretary Chao--that it is always easy to be on the outside looking in to the government in terms of what has not been done. But I, for one, am now converted a little bit. They have thought about a lot of things, especially between the State Department and the DHS.
The implementation is not always easy, but I like to just welcome people to come to our advisory committee--I think some of the meetings are open--but everything from technology to process, and so forth.
On a lighter note, before I end, after becoming the co-chair of that advisory committee I have been extremely sensitive when I come through to the United States, returning. I now realize there is something, to be "polite" and "cold" at the same time. So we are going to work with the Border Patrol folks and see whether we can get better on that. But they have been very polite. That's it.
(Laughter)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Okay. Thank you.
Anybody else?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Are there any objections to the letter?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: If not, we will pass it on to Secretary Gutierrez, who will then pass it on to the President.
In November, the Council's Executive Director, Under Secretary for International Trade Frank Lavin, led the largest trade mission in history to India. We talked about China, now we are going to talk about India, which obviously is surfacing as a very, very important market.
So, Frank, why don't you tell us what happened in India?
REMARKS ON INDIAN AND THE INDIA TRADE MISSION
The Honorable Franklin L. Lavin,
Under Secretary for International Trade
SECRETARY LAVIN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I had, as you noted, an opportunity to lead a mission that actually had its inception from President Bush's trip to India earlier this year. In his meetings with Prime Minister Singh, we received two instructions, as did our Indian counterparts.
One, is to do what we could to promote trade, and the other is to do what we can improve the policy environment. We have a number of projects under way in both those regards, but the centerpiece of both of them was this mission itself.
I think, in point of fact, although our team here at Commerce worked very hard to encourage the participation, what it really reflects is the product of the market, so to speak, that in India a reform process is under way to such an extent that, when there is an opportunity to do business or to explore the Indian market, there was enormous response here.
By the way, we ended up with over 250 participants in the trip, representing over 200 companies. Forty-six percent of the participants had never been to India before, so it shows that the moment was ripe and the product was ripe.
Just to give you a little background, we had a plenary session with Indian companies in Mumbai totaling about 500 to 600 people, and then we gave our U.S. participants the option of signing up for an additional city, one of six other cities, and then we set up individual meetings for them and I went on to Delhi.
There were two, I think, advantages beyond the large size. One, is that we could drive a policy agenda when we had such a large size there. I think the Indian side was very responsive to what we were trying to do in promoting trade and we had a number of, I think, reasonably effective trade negotiations on business issues, on IPR enforcement in the entertainment industry, which is quite sizeable in India, on the financial service industry, on trade facilitation, on communication and broadcasting issues as well.
So, we thought we made good use of the gravitational pull, if you will, of our delegation to command some response on policy.
The second impact was in the media, that what we are trying to do is send a very strong signal to the broader U.S. business community of the importance of the Indian market, and to the India business community that the U.S. companies are ready for business. We attracted a fair amount of press.
Our take-away from this. I think we dominated national news in India for about four days, I think 60 national stories. We got a reasonable amount of press back in the U.S. as well, network coverage on the business and financial channels, and then in a lot of the specialty business magazines.
Our challenge going forward, our challenge for '07, is to what extent can we replicate or build on this? So we're looking at upwards of any combination of three possible similar activities back in India, augmenting that with, possibly, China, and augmenting that with, possibly, Mexico to replicate large-scale missions involving several hundred participants.
And we also want to look at the media dimension more. I mean, the point is, for every U.S. business who is going to India, there might be 100 who should be thinking about going.
So we are looking at what kind of promotional activities we can do back in the U.S. to capitalize on this, including some preliminary discussions with some of the specialty educational cable networks about a documentary or a television discussion on the mission itself.
All of this is only going to be successful with substantial private sector participation, and we are very fortunate we got it last time. I think as most people around the table know, these missions are structured on what we call a "cost recovery" basis. Every participant pays their way.
The government pays staff salaries and so forth for the U.S. Government employees, but every single participant pays their own way and then pays a fee to cover all other expenses in the course.
So, it requires substantial private sector support in order to be successful. But we reached that least year and we think we are likely to find it again this year.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
Any questions for Frank?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Our Subcommittee on Trade Promotion and Negotiations is now developing a letter of recommendation on U.S-India trade that we hope to discuss at a future meeting.
I would now like to call upon Warren Staley, who is Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade Promotion Negotiations, to update the Council on their activities.
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRADE PROMOTION AND NEGOTIATIONS REPORT
By Mr. Warren Staley, Subcommittee Vice Chairman
MR. STALEY: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Secretary Gutierrez, and fellow Council members. Thanks for the opportunity to present our report on our discussions of the U.S. economic relationship with India.
Our members are in the process of drawing up recommendations on how the bilateral relationship can be enhanced. India's growing economy presents a tremendous opportunity for U.S. exporters and investors, but there remain significant barriers to entry that discourage closer economic ties at this time.
U.S.-India trade has increased to over $25 billion annually. However, with GDP in excess of $700 billion, there remains a great potential for expanded trade and investment flows to that country.
We will be exploring various policy reforms to improve the U.S.-India commercial relationship. Building on the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement, the time does appear right to most of us to try to move forward and pursue deeper bilateral ties with that country.
The President's Export Council applauds the administration's efforts to date in this area through the establishment of the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum. Inaugurated in the fall of 2005, the forum has a goal of doubling bilateral trade in three years. It is a big goal.
The forum focuses on five areas, which include: trade and agricultural products, tariff and nontariff barriers, services, investment, innovation and creativity.
We believe such efforts are critical to improving the bilateral trade and investment climate. In addition, the President appointed a U.S.-India CEO membership forum that was established also in 2005 to bring key leaders from the private sector of both nations together to work on ways to enhance the economic relationship between our two countries.
I have served on the U.S. side of that and have found it very helpful. It is the first time in my experience of many, many years dealing with India that I think we are having an open, frank discussion, mostly off the record, which helps a lot. I think the leadership in India is, for the first time, understanding the view of the United States. Their culture is very, very difficult, they admit, to go forward.
To date, President's Export Council members have identified a number of obstacles to economic growth such as: high tariffs on many goods; restrictions on foreign direct investment in certain sectors; regulatory hurdles; and weak infrastructure development.
I would put an emphasis on the last. In the case of my company, lack of really good infrastructure in India really, really inhibits investing much money there.
The protection of intellectual property rights in India is also a common concern of U.S. businesses. India stands to benefit from moving forward with reforms in terms of its competition with China, which we have talked about many times, and with other developing countries, especially in their region.
While many of these issues could be addressed in the Doha Round multilateral negotiations, bilateral and regional approaches may be necessary to obtain the desired outcome.
Working through these mechanisms, such as the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum, the U.S. and India could explore agreements to facilitate increased investment in trade and goods and services.
Mr. Chairman, the President's Export Council will be working over the next few months to finalize formal recommendations in a letter to the President, and we look forward to working with the staff, who has been very helpful, to prepare our report.
Thank you.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thanks, Warren.
Anybody have any questions for Warren or any discussion on India at this time?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: The Council has also prepared a letter of recommendation on Radio Frequency Identification. I would like, now, to ask Betty Manetta, chairperson of the Subcommittee on Technology and Competitiveness, to give their report.
SUBCOMMITTEE ON TECHNOLOGY AND COMPETITIVENESS REPORT
By Ms. Betty Manetta, Subcommittee Chairman
Presentation of Proposed Letter on
Radio Frequency Identification
MS. MANETTA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Secretary Gutierrez. Thank you for the opportunity for our subcommittee to present the letter.
I think what we have heard here today, to echo Frank's point, the centerpiece of security enhancements, expediting supply chains, everything is kind of centered around technology. The letter that we are presenting to the President today is, how do we continue to stay in the forefront of competitiveness?
How do we ensure that our technologies are going to be in the forefront and, again, give us the competitive edge that we need? This letter is asking the President to continue and to support the cause and to stay the course of competitiveness, and that is incorporating services and manufacturing with an open platform and using the standards that we have today to continue to move forward.
The letter talks about several points:
1)Supporting the continued research on
RFID.
That's one of the technologies, but certainly not the end-all, because there's biometrics, et cetera. Increasing pilot programs throughout the Federal Government, which we have already talked about that you have been
doing.
2)Encouraging greater participation with
foreign governments and dialogue on the
issues of standards
3)Encouraging greater cooperation between
public and private sector, as well as
academia, which we are doing today
4)Addressing the need for small minority
enterprises
This means minority companies. How do we stay ahead of the curve? How do we stay competitive? Again, it is ensuring that we have platforms that are attainable by all.
So the letter that we have here today, Mr. Chairman, is one that we have talked about in the past and I think it just pretty much echoes what we have been talking about here: the technology that we're supporting and that we are asking the President to move forward on is to be an open architecture, one that is driven by the marketplace, and not to come up with anything outside of what we have here today.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
Questions for Betty, anybody? Any comments on this? Discussion?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Is there any objection to the letter?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: If not, we will assume the letter has been approved and we'll pass it on to Secretary Gutierrez, who will give it to the President.
MS. MANETTA: Thank you.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Any other items for discussion, general discussion of things you'd like to talk about, bring up?
(No response)
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Mr. Secretary, any comments from you?
SECRETARY GUTIERREZ: No. Just, again, I want to thank everyone for the contribution and just ask you to recognize that this is a time when there is an important debate taking place on trade.
Anything that all of you can do, any of you can do, to continue to make people aware of the importance of trade and how much it means for our economy -- this is a time period when protectionism is on the table as a viable "strategy" and we believe that it would be a serious mistake to not move forward with our trade agenda, and that includes getting our free trade agreements in place, it includes Doha, it includes trade promotion authority for the President.
So anything that you can do to get that word out is very important. We do run the risk of backtracking and I think that would be devastating for our economy. So I thank you for your leadership and thank you for everything you are doing.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: I would like to also thank everyone for all the hard work they've done for the meeting today. I think we've done some good work today.
I want to thank Al Frink and his staff. He's been keeping the Council running on a daily basis. He is going to be retiring after two and a half years as Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services, and he'll be stepping down at the end of the month.
He is going to be missed greatly. He has done a great job. On behalf of the Council, we thank you for your service, all your hard work, and wish you good luck. Thank you very much.
(Applause)
MR. FRINK: The staff deserves the credit, as you know, Mr. Chairman.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Well, it has to have a leader, and you did a great job.
Our next meeting is going to be in the summer and we will move to determine the date as soon as we can. Thank you all. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thank you, Secretary Jackson, for being here. It meant a lot to us to have you here.
ADJOURN
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: If there is no other business, I'll move we adjourn. Make a move, anybody?
VOICE: So moved.
VOICE: Second.
CHAIRMAN MARRIOTT: Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.
(Whereupon, at 11:20 a.m. the meeting was adjourned.)
C E R T I F I C A T E
This is to certify that the foregoing proceedings of a meeting of the President's Export Council, held on Thursday, January 18, 2007, were transcribed as herein appears, and this is the original of transcript thereof.
LISA DENNIS
Certified Verbatim Reporter