McNerney, Burns Announce Subcommittees for President's Export Council; First Meeting Scheduled for September 16

CHICAGO, Aug. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- President's Export Council Chairman Jim McNerney and Vice Chairman Ursula Burns today announced the subcommittees for the newly established group, which is tasked with providing President Barack Obama advice on ways to enhance U.S. competitiveness and fuel job growth by doubling exports in five years.

McNerney, Boeing chairman, president and CEO, said ideas for the council structure and its initial focus areas came from the members appointed by the president on July 7. "We constructed this council to guide and focus our initial efforts on this national imperative. We have an aggressive plan that addresses a wide range of job-creating export opportunities, from expanding free and fair trade agreements, to increasing tourism to the United States, to retraining our returning veterans in needed work skills," McNerney said.

"Our estimate is that these first initiatives, if fully implemented, could take a significant step forward toward the goal of doubling exports in five years," said Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox.

McNerney and Burns plan to structure the Export Council into five subcommittees:

1. Small and Medium Sized Business Engagement
2. Export Promotion and Advocacy
3. Global Competitiveness
4. Manufacturing, Services and Agriculture
5. Workforce Readiness

The Export Council's first official meeting is scheduled for September 16th.

The council is focused on working with the administration to double exports in five years by pushing free and fair trade agreements through Congress, implementing export control reforms, examining business visa policies, implementing bilateral and multilateral enforcement of intellectual property rights and establishing public-private partnership using U.S. embassies abroad to promote the United States as a tourism destination.

These measures plus others -- increasing Ex-Im Bank lending; increasing the number of commercial officers overseas; and working with the departments of Veterans Affairs, Education and Labor to offer returning veterans skills training in high-demand job areas focused on science, technology, engineering and math -- will help reinvigorate U.S. innovation and drive exports, which will enhance U.S. competitiveness and sustain U.S. jobs.  

The President's Export Council is the principal national advisory committee on international trade. The council advises the president of government policies and programs that affect U.S. trade performance; promotes export expansion; and provides a forum for discussing and resolving trade-related problems among the business, industrial, agricultural, labor, and government sectors.

There are currently 20 private-sector members of the council who serve with five senators and five congressmen appointed by their respective leadership in addition to the Secretaries of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and Treasury; the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; the U.S. Trade Representative; and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

Contact:

John Dern, Boeing, 312-544-2002

Carl Langsenkamp, Xerox, 585-423-5782

SOURCE Boeing