Obama turns attention to economic opportunities in Asia

WASHINGTON -- As the U.S. economy struggles with a $15 trillion national debt, 9% unemployment and a possible recession in Europe, President Obama will spend the next week in a place that could be part of the solution: Asia.

Since coming to office nearly three years ago, Obama has made clear his intention to focus U.S. foreign policy much more on the Asia-Pacific region he grew up in. His secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, recently called this "America's Pacific Century."

For good reason: More than half the world's economic activity is in countries bordering the Pacific Ocean. More than 60% of U.S. exports went to the other 20 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies last year, supporting about 4 million U.S. jobs.

The loose-knit organization of 21 economies includes six of the 10 largest U.S. trade partners: Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan.

So the president's trip is mostly about expanding U.S. trade and continuing to grow its economy — something Obama is having more difficulty doing at home with an uncooperative Congress. Because of that, some have suggested he cut the trip short.

"There is pressure here not to do the trip," says Ernest Bower, director of the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "You know, it's always better to be in Indiana than Indonesia."

Hogwash, say trade experts, noting Obama's goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years and China's economic ascendance.

"The president is focusing on jobs at home by trying to create more international trade," says Jim Bacchus, a former Democratic congressman from Florida and chief judge of the World Trade Organization. "It's certainly the right place for us to focus much of our attention."

The Asia mission is in many ways the opposite of Obama's two-day trip to the Group of 20 economic conference in France. There, he was trying to help prevent an economic meltdown on a continent mired in debt. Beginning this weekend, he will be traveling to an area of opportunity, where thriving nations represent a market for U.S. goods and services.

The two economic pillars of the trip are the APEC summit that Obama is hosting in Hawaii on Sunday and a summit between the U.S. and Southeast Asian nations in Indonesia next Saturday.

"You'll be hearing again and again the theme that building cross-Pacific trade, free trade agreements, those are good for American jobs," says Douglas Paal, head of the Asia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "You won't be able to see the jobs they're producing immediately, but they're out there."

In between those summits and another mini-summit of North American leaders in Hawaii will be a two-day visit to Australia, the lone continent that Obama has missed during his presidency — not for a lack of trying. Twice he has been forced to cancel trips there because of domestic issues.

The trip will have at least two major announcements: likely progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement among the U.S. and eight nations that together represent 6% of U.S. exports (adding Japan would double that percentage), and a deal to allow an expanded U.S. military presence in northwest Australia.

The trip will have a personal touch as well, taking Obama from his birthplace in Hawaii to Indonesia, where he lived for several years as a child.