Republican Mitt Romney said Thursday that Washington must act to open more foreign markets to American products and the president should have new authority to negotiate such trade agreements.
The presidential candidate proposed what he called a "Reagan Zone of Economic Freedom" that would include U.S. free-trade partners such as Europe that commit to opening up markets and "playing by the rules." Such an alliance could operate inside and outside the World Trade Organization to push for trade agreements as well as labor, environmental and other reforms.
"How else do you strengthen the economy? You open up markets for American goods. If there are markets that won't let our goods in on a fair basis, you push them in there," he told a crowd of about 400 people. "Keep those doors open, don't block off our ability to compete with the rest of the world, let us get into other markets."
Romney challenged China and others who shut the U.S. out of agreements, and he said that as Asian countries grow and develop they will bring new trade opportunities.
"They have been steeped in poverty for generations. Now, a billion new people come into the work force. That's really an opportunity for us to sell goods and services, software, hardware, movies, cars, all sorts of things, to a part of the world who could never afford them," he said."But it's also a challenge because they are hardworking, innovative people, and there are a lot of them, and they are going to be a lot tougher to compete with than Europe has been."
"Governors tend to have experience running something, and the government of the United States is the largest enterprise in the world," he said. Of his Democratic rivals, he said: "Not one of them has ever run a corner store."
Romney is in a league of his own when he taughts on subjects such as this.
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