An economic recovery with strong job growth won’t happen without more exporting by small and medium-sized U.S. manufacturers, U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson said Wednesday during a visit to such a company in north Denver.
“Exports produce jobs,” Bryson told about 150 people at Geotech Environmental Equipment. “With smaller businesses, we have to make sure their needs are met, and then we have to help them move into exports.
“The U.S. is a strong exporter, but only 1 percent of our companies export at all, and 56 percent of those only export to one market outside the U.S.,” he said.
In his first public trip outside Washington, D.C., since being confirmed about two weeks ago, Bryson stopped in the Denver area Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, he toured federal labs in Boulder, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Wednesday morning, Bryson visited Geotech, which makes environmental equipment, primarily for monitoring and cleaning of polluted groundwater. The Denver-based company, founded in 1978, has revenues of about $20 million and saw its international sales increase 40 percent last year. So far this year, the company has hired seven people, bringing total employment close to 100.
Earlier this year, Geotech opened an office in China.
“We need to take what you’re doing and spread it across the country,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., after touring the plant with Bryson and Geotech chief executive Jeffrey Popiel.
Bryson also championed President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, noting that the payroll tax cuts proposed in the measure would benefit 130,000 Colorado companies and give the typical family a $1,740 tax cut.
Senate Republicans have blocked the plan because it would eliminate tax breaks for top earners who they say are job creators. Obama has renewed his push by appealing to the public. The administration split off and advanced two provisions of the bill, one to hire more teachers and police officers, and the other to provide funding for modernizing roads and bridges.
“I remain optimistic,” Bryson said. “What the public wants to happen is that there will be support for these provisions.”
