Despite opposition to more free trade agreements by the leading presidential nominees, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said international trade is helping the Volunteer State grow exports and attract more foreign direct investment.
“In the countries where we have trade agreements with, our exports – be they agricultural or manufacturing goods – tend to be 30 to 40 percent higher,” Haslam said told reporters today after returning from a 10-day trip to Asia. “I also wouldn’t want to see what Tennessee would look like if (Japanese-based) Nissan wouldn’t have made its original investment in Tennessee (in 1983), which has been followed by so many other foreign suppliers.”
Tennessee has attracted more than $20 billion of direct foreign investment from Asian companies, which directly employ nearly 50,000 Tennesseans. Haslam said today he expects that investment to grow even more “because the U.S. is still seen as the best market for investment in the world.”
“We also took a lot of encouragement from the fact that many of those interested in investing in the U.S. saw Tennessee as a leading candidate for that investment,” the governor told reporters during a conference call about his Asian trip.
Haslam, who visited eight cities in Japan, China and Korea during his business recruitment trip, said he was asked in every city about the U.S. presidential race. The governor said many business leaders had concerns about the political movement away from more open trade between the U.S. and Asia.