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MR. OWENS: …Interestingly enough, last year is the first year we exported more to emerging markets than to our traditional OECD country competitors. We've been operating globally for a very long time.

As you know, last year we had unfortunately headline news of horrific layoffs, and very disappointing. We did maintain our financial strength. We maintained our investment focus on new product technologies. This year the exports alone will allow us to recall over 3,000 employees in the U.S., as we can currently see it. And we think our suppliers, direct suppliers, in the U.S. will recall between 9,000 and 10,000.

THE PRESIDENT: That's great.

MR. OWENS: So I'm very encouraged by that. Certainly it's a lot more fun to be hiring than laying off people.

THE PRESIDENT: Absolutely.

MR. OWENS: And I think the economy is turning.

Just in the way of recommendation, I think we're pretty well known for very being strong supporters of trade agreements. I think the three pending FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea -- if we could move those through the Congress and get passage, it would send a tremendously positive message that our country is open for business.

And I think we need to restart and successfully lead getting a Doha round of trade negotiations. That's a little longer-term initiative. But the world needs the WTO structure. And it's dangerous -- there were a number of protections measures put in place around the world over the last period of economic trauma we've all gone through. We need to get back to leadership there, and I think the United States is the country that can do that.

And finally, on the tax side -- I know there's been a lot of discussion about that -- but we need to pay our fair share of taxes; totally agree. But a territorial tax system -- which most of our major trading partners have -- if we went to that system, we would free up hundreds of billions of dollars, which would flow back to the United States and create investment, I believe, in our own country, and more research and engineering here. These are our key competitive strengths. It's a very complex area, I recognize.

And the other recommendation -- and Jeff touched on it -- as I travel the world, you know, I can't go to India or China or Indonesia without a strong sales pitch, not only from the national government but certainly at the local provincial level -- "We'd like to build tractors here" -- and really encouraging foreign direct investment.

We need to do a better job of encouraging foreign direct investment in our country. It creates jobs here -- it's import substitution. It creates meaningful employment and a tax base. Most every American company and CEO that I know and spend time with -- and there's quite a few of them -- are confident we can compete and win given a level playing field. And the kind of recommendations that I'm making I think are really about creating a level playing field for American manufacturers and service providers around the world.

Thank you very much.

CHAIRMAN VOLCKER: There's a lot of opinion in this group about the free trade agreements and the fact that corporate taxes, the international tax business is a mess and it needs a review. I don't know what the answer is, but it sure does need a review.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me just comment on these two issues. I'm on the record as saying I want to complete these trade agreements. To do that, things have to get through Congress and that requires, as I think all of you observed over the last year and a half, quite a bit of work. But this is something that we believe in and we want to continue to pursue.