Better ports, more trade

President Obama has promised to double U.S. exports in four years, and in doing so create 2 million new jobs. It won't be easy without free trade agreements that have been blocked by the Democratic leadership in Congress for years.

Nor can export growth be achieved for the long term without a coherent national policy on port improvements.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sought Wednesday to dispel well-founded doubts about the president's free trade position by citing his support of long-pending agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. "They're overwhelmingly in our favor economically," Mr. Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee. "And if we don't do it what it means is that business just goes to other countries."

That's what Republican legislators have been saying for years while the three trade agreements have languished. President Obama's trade office renegotiated the Korean agreement this year seeking concessions demanded by the largely government-owned American car manufacturers and the United Auto Workers.

But until Mr. Geithner spoke up, Mr. Obama and his administration have not shown a willingness to push for the Colombia and Panama agreements over union objections.

And it's reasonable to question how export expansion will be sustained absent a federal commitment to help U.S. ports achieve greater capacity as larger post-Panamax ships become the trade vessels of choice.

As former port executive Ron Brinson points out on our Commentary page today, the lack of budget support for ports by the administration will be felt across the nation.

Even the Charleston port's piddling request for $400,000 to begin the essential deepening process was ignored in the president's budget, despite Charleston Mayor Joe Riley's personal efforts to lobby Mr. Obama on its behalf.

The port's importance to export-related economic goals was evident in this week's news on the growth of BMW exports shipped out of Charleston. BMW exported vehicles worth more than $4.4 billion last year, making it the largest vehicle exporter to customers outside North America. The vehicles were made in the company's Greer plant.

The company plans to increase its export capacity by about 50 percent this year, a goal supported by BMW's track record.

President Obama's ambitious export goals, announced last year, may be more difficult to reach. He will have to negotiate access to many markets now closed to large U.S. imports. And he will have to overcome the aversion to free international markets from the congressional leadership of his own party.

For example, he needs the strong hand that presidential Trade Promotion Authority provides. Under TPA the president can negotiate international agreements that Congress must approve on a single up-or-down vote, known as a "fast track," so they cannot be amended to death legislatively. Unfortunately, TPA was killed by the Democratic Congress in 2007.

Trade is one area where cooperation across party lines can definitely help the economy.

But it will take more than talk. It will require a real commitment by the president, his administration and his party in Congress.