By JOSH LEDERMAN
Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the 2013 Annual Conference of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, Friday, April 5, 2013. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. still needs an ambitious agenda to make American products competitive overseas.
Biden tells an annual conference of the Export-Import Bank that American workers can still compete with anyone in the world when the playing field is level. He’s citing intellectual property theft as an impediment and says it must stop.
Biden says part of his job when he travels abroad is to be, in his words, an “extended chamber of commerce.” He says he makes no apologies for fighting for American companies.
To stay competitive, Biden says the U.S. must reform its immigration system, maintain its presence as a Pacific power and invest in economic infrastructure.
The Obama administration is about halfway to its goal of doubling American exports by 2015.