Commerce Secretary Locke: Fine Line Between Economic Stimulus and Protectionism

By Alexis Glick

My last guest of the day was U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, and boy did he have a lot to say about government intervention and regulation, small businesses and trade.

Earlier today he announced the creation of “one-stop shop advocacy centers” for small businesses that have trained professionals from all the Federal agencies that can help a small business owner expand his/her business.

“A business owner or entrepreneur now doesn’t have to go from five different agencies, different addresses, and different buildings or try to navigate the dozens of different Web sites of the federal government to access different services and programs that can really benefit a company.”

He cited the impact small businesses have on the health of the economy and said small and medium businesses are responsible for most of the jobs in our economy and account for nearly 90% of exports.

We also explored how the U.S. competes with China, in which he said education is crucial.

“If we want to compete, if we want jobs for our children and our grandchildren we need to make sure they have the skills necessary to get those good paying jobs.”

He also said we need to enforce our trade agreements with China to protect our inventions, intellectual property and creations that are being ripped off.

We also talked about the lack of proper government oversight that led to the current economic crisis, in which he told me the government has no intention to run GM or Chrysler and wants to turn over the day-to-day management to the private sector as soon as possible.

Locke continued to say there is a fine line between economic stimulus and protectionism. Locke referenced a recent law Congress passed that stopped Mexican truckers from bringing their products into the United States, which in turn caused the Mexican government to retaliate and hurt US farmers.

“Protectionism, once you start it it ends up in a trade war and everyone gets hurt.”

Check out the full interview below: