Madam President, I rise today to thank Senator Durbin of Illinois for his leadership on these vital issues.
You just heard in the comments he has made the reach and scope of his vision. I am just so impressed with the breadth and depth of his engagement. First, on behalf of American workers, because he recognizes so clearly that 95% of the world’s consumers live outside our country and we have to have a coordinated, capable, competent export strategy in order to continue to access the most promising, most rapidly growing markets in Africa.
The 54 countries of the continent of Africa provide enormous opportunity as their growing middle class, increasing access to their human and mineral and natural resources create opportunities for us to grow jobs here in the United States. Nearly 10 million good jobs today are supported in the United States by exports to the rest of the world. As Senator Durbin has wisely seen and pointed out, our competitors are beating us in the race to access these great opportunities.
The Chinese, the Brazilians, the Russians, the Indians. In every country on the continent, they are present, they are investing, and they are growing. Senator Durbin rightly recognized that China has eclipsed the United States as the leading trade partner for Africa, and there are real consequences for Africans and for African countries. Sadly often Chinese investments bring with them Chinese contractors, workers and a different approach to values, priorities in terms of development, a lack of focus on transparency, on human rights, on the environment, and as he detailed in his comments today, the consequences can even be so far-reaching as conservation and the impact on wildlife and the ultimate consequences of supporting the worst actors on the continent, folks such as Joseph Kony.
But let me turn, if I might, briefly to the bill which I am proud to cosponsor with him today, which focuses on trying to ensure that the more than 10 U.S. government agencies responsible for export promotion have a coordinated strategy. One of the principal points of his bill, which I am proud to cosponsor, challenges the Executive branch to sustain and increase our investment in the Foreign Commercial Service, to sustain an increase our resources through things like OPIC and EX-IM and asks the Executive branch to create a coordinator to ensure that all of this is done responsibly and in a cost-effective way.
Other things that I mentioned in the trade report, which Senator Durbin was kind enough to quote and to reference, are that in the United States, we have an enormous African diaspora community, which can be strategically vital as American businesses seek to access these growing opportunities across the continent of Africa.
We also look to bolster support for agencies that finance U.S. commercial engagement overseas. Our competitors, in particular the Chinese, have a very different approach to finance exports and the United States needs to better coordinate and better align to act as one nation.
The goal that set in this legislation is a 200% increase is an ambitious goal, a 200% increase in U.S. exports to Africa in the next ten years. But if we were to accomplish this goal in a cost-effective way through more responsibly coordinating the investments we’re already making in these federal agencies that can better coordinate U.S. private-sector efforts, think of how many jobs we might create, think of how many countries we might connect better to the United States, think of how many towns and workplaces across this country would benefit.
Senator Durbin, I just want to thank you today for your leadership, for the clarity of your vision, for the breadth of your engagement and for the investment of time. Someone in his position has so many other issues which he could be investing his time on, but over his entire service here in Senate of the United States, he’s been passionate about clean water for the continent of Africa and passionate about high-quality jobs for the workers of the United States. In this bill he finds a way to make good on both of those passions, improving the lives of Africans across a growing continent and improving the lives of workers across our nation. Thank you, sir, for your leadership and I am proud to join you today in cosponsoring this reintroduced bipartisan, soon-to-be bicameral, commonsense bill. Let’s hope that all of our colleagues take it up and pass it in this Congress.
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