Emerging middle class in India will create jobs in US, says Kerry in first address.
Bureau Report
WASHINGTON, DC: In his first foreign policy speech since appointed as the US Secretary of State John Kerry said that emerging middle class in countries like India means more jobs and income for America, indicating that trade and economy would be paramount as he begins to traverse the world, underscoring the fact that globalization is here to stay and nobody can “put this genie back in the bottle.”
Speaking at the University of Virginia, in Charlotesville, VA – established by the first US Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson – before he embarks on a 9-nation, 11-day tour to Europe and the Middle East, Kerry said “the price of abandoning our global efforts would be exorbitant and the vacuum we would leave by retreating within ourselves will quickly be filled by those whose interests differ dramatically from our own,” adding that “we have learned that lesson in the deserts of Mali, the mountains of Afghanistan, and the tribal areas of Pakistan.”
“It’s simple. The more they (US businesses) sell abroad, the more they’re going to hire here at home. And since 95 percent of the world’s customers live outside of our country, we can’t hamstring our own ability to compete in those increasingly growing markets,” he said.
Kerry said in the 21st century, the US has lost the luxury of just looking inward; instead, “we look out and we see a new field of competitors. I think it gives us much reason to hope. But it also gives us many more rivals determined to create jobs and opportunities for their own people, a voracious marketplace that sometimes forgets morality and values.”
He added: “I know that some of you and many across the country wish that globalization would just go away, or you wistfully remember easier times. But, my friends, no politician, no matter how powerful, can put this genie back in the bottle. So our challenge is to tame the worst impulses of globalization even as we harness its ability to spread information and possibility, to offer even the most remote place on Earth the same choices that have made us strong and free.”
Kerry said that the US creates more than 5,000 jobs for every billion dollars of goods and services that they export.
“So the last thing that we should do is surrender this kind of leverage,” he said giving the example of Canada, where State Department officers there got a local automotive firm to invest tens of millions of dollars in Michigan, where the American auto industry is now making a remarkable comeback.
Kerry also said that one of America’s most incredible realities continues to be that “we are a country without any permanent enemies,” citing Vietnam, where in the last decade, exports increased by more than 700 percent.
Kerry indicated that the US would focus on Africa, as seven of the 10 fastest growing countries are on that continent.
Kerry also emphasized that the State Department would continue to work extensively to protect human rights issues, as well as health and nutrition, “and the principle of helping people gain strength to help themselves,” in the developing world. He talked about cornerstone initiatives like Feed the Future, to help countries not only plant and harvest better food, but also help them break the cycle of poverty, of poor nutrition, and of hunger.
“We value gender equality, knowing that countries are, in fact, more peaceful and prosperous when women and girls are afforded full rights and equal opportunity,” he said to applause. He pointed out that in the last decade, the proportion of African women enrolled in higher education went from nearly zero to 20 percent. In 2002, there were fewer than a million boys in Afghan schools and barely any girls. Now, with America’s help, more than a third of the almost eight million students going to school in Afghanistan are girls.
“Let me be very clear. Foreign assistance is not a giveaway. It’s not charity. It is an investment in a strong America and in a free world,” he said.