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WASHINGTON : US President Barack Obama, back from a tour of Asia, called Saturday for the United States to produce more goods to sell across the Pacific, touting trade as a way to revive the troubled US economy.
Facing rising unemployment and slipping poll numbers, Obama assured the public that creating new jobs back home was his top priority on the week-long tour that took him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.
"I traveled to Asia to open a new era of American engagement," Obama said in his weekly radio address, recorded while he was in Seoul.
"Above all, I spoke with leaders in every nation I visited about what we can do to sustain this economic recovery and bring back jobs and prosperity for our people -- a task I will continue to focus on relentlessly in the weeks and months ahead," he said.
Obama, who was elected in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades, said the lesson of the turmoil was that the world's largest economy should not fuel its growth on going into debt.
"In order to keep growing, we need to spend less, save more and get our federal deficit under control," Obama said.
"We also need to place a greater emphasis on exports that we can build, produce, and sell to other nations -- exports that can help create new jobs at home and raise living standards throughout the world," he said.
If the United States increased exports to Asia-Pacific nations by five percent, "we can increase the number of American jobs supported by these exports by hundreds of thousands," Obama said.
- AFP/vm
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