Subject: CEOs: Locke Obama's secret weapon - Ben White - POLITICO.com
From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Pat Corken" <[email-masked]>, "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2011 07:59:17 -0500

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/48959_Page3.html

CEOs: Locke Obama's secret weapon

“Months after I joined the administration, in March of 2009, we started working on increasing exports and presenting ideas and strategies to the White House,” Locke said in an interview with POLITICO. “And within months after that, we were working on the National Export Initiative.”

Obama announced the NEI in his 2010 State of the Union, and it has become Locke’s primary focus. U.S. exports to China rose 34 percent in 2010, according to Commerce Department figures. Overall, exports grew 17 percent in the first 11 months of 2010. The U.S. just signed a major trade deal with South Korea after months of difficult negotiations.

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According to Locke’s office, since January of 2010, Commerce has coordinated 35 trade missions — the most by any administration in a single year — in 31 countries with 368 companies participating. Companies expect $2 billion in increased exports from these missions.

Locke has four trade missions scheduled this year. He is currently in India with representatives of 24 U.S. companies on a mission focusing on technology deals. The trip follows Locke’s visit to India with Obama in November in which U.S. companies signed $10 billion worth of deals with Indian companies.

Locke described Obama’s trip to India as a critical moment in reshaping corporate attitudes toward the White House. “A lot of the concerns were allayed when they saw [Obama] in action in India. And that was all planned back during the summer, well before the midterm elections.”

The commerce secretary has made a particular effort to explain the advantages of exports to small and mid-size U.S. companies, which do little of it. According to Locke, just 1 percent of U.S. companies do any exporting. And of that 1 percent, 58 percent send goods to just one country, often Mexico or Canada. The NEI aims to change that.

But Locke says Commerce will help lobby for big companies as well.

“Let’s say Caterpillar is vying for a big contract in Russia, then we will bring all the resources and prestige of the U.S. to bear in terms of writing letters, making phone calls to ministers and business leaders and getting the White House directly involved,” Locke said.

It is this kind of advocacy that many in corporate America say has made Locke such an asset, if often an unsung one, in the Obama administration.

“He has been a cheerleader for our industry since Day 1 on the job,” said Richard Bates, senior vice president of government relations at The Walt Disney Co., who has worked with Locke mainly on intellectual property protection in China and elsewhere. “He is always accessible, and he speaks with authority and understanding.”

Eric D. Schwerin
Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC
1010 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 333-1880
[email-masked]
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