The federal government is touting progress made on the presidents goal to double national exports in the next five years, and a prominent Florida business advocate says that the state could be following suit if it makes the right choices.
I think its certainly possible, said Barney Bishop, president and CEO of major business advocacy organization Associated Industries of Florida. Whether that can happen is going to depend on the economy of the world and the ability of Florida and the nation in general to remain competitive.
In the first four months of the year, national exports rose 17 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce,and President Barack Obama praised the development Wednesday as a sign the state was on track to meet its goals and touted his fledgling National Export Initiative as a way to guide progress in the future.
Boosting Americas exports strengthens our economic growth and supports millions of good, high-paying American jobs, Obama said. Thats why I set a goal during my State of the Union address to double our exports over the next five years.
The state export industry now seems to be rising, buoyed by a more confident international market. In the first four months of this year, Florida exported $11.25 billion in manufactured goods to international markets, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In the first four months of last year, it only shipped out $10.4 billion.
For the first four months of this year, it shipped $2.6 billion in non-manufactured goods to international markets. By the end of April last year, it had shipped out just over $2 billion.
In 2009, Florida's exports rose to account for 4.4 percent of the nations exports, a .2 percent rise compared to 2008, according to the Census Bureau.The value of its exports, however, fell to $46.8 billion in 2009 from $54.2 billion in 2008.
"The Panama Canal is scheduled to be completed in 2014, and Florida is well-placed to profit off the influx of cash and jobs that will result," Bishop said. "With its proximity to the Caribbean, the state is also poised to prosper from being a gateway to exports to the Caribbean and Latin America," he added. "But it needs to invest in preparing its ports for the transition by funding dredging and other projects.
"The state, which has 42,000 export businesses and 14 seaside ports, needs to reduce regulation and increase security at ports to increase confidence in its port infrastructure," Bishop said. "The state took an important step in that direction when it eliminated recently the expensive state security card needed to access ports but kept the federal one in place," he added.
"The state should also use incentives to draw businesses to the ports and to keep residential development away from port areas," said Bishop. "One way to draw businesses to ports is to sell state land next to ports, with incentives, to businesses so they can locate their warehouses on them," he said.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce has made it a mission to double state exports, proposing a five-year plan in May that it says will allow the state to do so.
According to statistics the chamber gathered, export and import rates between Floridaand Colombia andBrazil could expand as much as 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Exports to India and China could expand by as much as 8 percent and 10 percent respectively, according to the chamber.
Florida is well-positioned to expand market share over the next several years, the Chamber of Commerce announced in April. Furthermore, the global markets are likely to expand faster than the national economy. During 2010-2015, key emerging trade markets of Florida are forecast to grow faster than the U.S., providing the state a unique opportunity to support a significant expansion of international trade activity."
