FedEx Freight President Mike Ducker Still Hopes TPP Will Go Through
A senior FedEx executive said it's too early to tell how a mammoth new trade agreement will fare after the election of Donald Trump, but it would be "tragic" for the Trans-Pacific Partnership to go down.
Ducker Michael Ducker, president of FedEx Freight, told a Memphis logistics conference Nov. 9 that it's unclear whether there's momentum for congressional ratification of TPP before Trump and a new Congress are seated.
"Americans really need this Trans-Pacific Partnership," said Ducker, who also is treasurer of American Trucking Associations. "No other trade issue has received as much attention as has the TPP during this election year."
"If you read all the polls, more than 60% of Americans recognize trade is good for the country. There is some sentiment to try to press this deal forward, and I just don't know, I don't think anybody does, what's going to happen during this [lame duck] session or when the new Congress is seated. But the table is set, it's been negotiated, other countries are waiting to see what we do, and I think it would be tragic to miss the opportunity," Ducker said.
"Frankly, I think the infrastructure, the red tape required to start a new business, because we have to renew the entrepreneurial spirit here. We have to reform the tax code. If you want to find a great answer to these trade deals and a lot of the issues we talk about, reform the tax code, and then people will come here and manufacture here."
Great kickoff to #Inland2016 Day2! Michael Ducker, Fedex CEO, speaks volume! #vision #growth pic.twitter.com/66Q7d6YTmn — Marie-Chantal Savoy (@MarieChantal65) November 9, 2016
Asked what FedEx, which ranks No. 2 on the Transport Topics list of the Top 100 largest for-hire carriers in the United States and Canada, would want to tell the president-elect about regulatory issues, Ducker said, "The list is long and full, because we've been in quite a regulatory environment the last few years. I would cast it more in terms of what are the biggest things we can work on."
Ducker said, "Expanding trade opportunities for Americans has been a bipartisan pursuit since this country started. It needs to continue to be so as this new president and Congress are seated. And the time to act is now."
TPP promises to knock down trade barriers and eliminate 18,000 foreign tariffs that make American products less competitive in 11 Pacific Rim countries, Ducker said. More than half of Tennessee exports are to TPP countries, which are home to 480 million consumers.
"Trade agreements help our country compete with other nations," Ducker said. "The U.S. trade deficit is often cited by opponents of trade deals as the principal reason why the U.S. should not enter into new trade agreements. In reality, trade agreements are the solution to trade deficits and not the problem."
The 20 countries with which the United States has trade agreements "buy 13 times as many 'Made in the USA' goods and services as do other countries. Many people don't even realize the United States has a trade surplus with our trade agreement partners, not only in services, but also in manufacturing and in agriculture. You can look these numbers up, they are real," Ducker added.
He said if the United States doesn't act on TPP, it will fall behind.
"Importantly, all of the U.S. will be put at a disadvantage as other countries negotiate trade agreements that exclude us," Ducker said. "Those trade agreements are already being crafted. You can read about them, much of that being led by China. Without active U.S. involvement in the world's fastest-growing economic regions, other nations will continue to move forward and create agreements that shut out our interests."
Acknowledging a key argument against trade deals, American job losses, Ducker said, "The benefits of trade are dispersed and longer term. The pain of trade is short term and immediate."
Government and business need to work together to make sure workers displaced by trade deals and technology are retrained for new jobs and careers, he said.
"Turning back on opportunities like the TPP is not going to do anything for those workers who have been displaced by trade and technology, which, by the way, has had a far greater impact on trade than anything else," Ducker said.
