As part of the National Chamber Foundation's Leadership Series Scott Davis, Chairman and CEO of UPS, spoke yesterday and had some good words on trade:

Any move by Washington to solve the current economic crisis with protectionist restrictions on free trade would hamper the U.S. recovery, as well as harm freight and logistics companies, the CEO of the world’s largest transport company charged Thursday. (Logistics Management)

"Global trade has become the emotional punching bag of many politicians and protectionists," Davis said in prepared speech. In an address to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Davis said America and its trading partners would be "making a huge mistake" by employing trade restrictions as a strategy to weather the economic downturn. "Increased global trade could be the number one antidote to the current financial crisis," he said. (

Davis said free trade is not an enemy to U.S. manufacturers, even though other countries such as China can produce at much lower costs because of low wages. "The U.S. retained its title last year as the world's leading manufacturer, representing one-quarter of the global manufacturing output," Davis said. "That percentage has been stable for some time. The U.S. also retained its title as the world's largest exporter, with exports of goods and services reaching $1.8 trillion."  (AP)

Now we are bound to here howls of protests from the isolationists that UPS is a big "multi-national corporation" and therefore doesn't represent the bulk of America's businesses. To that I give you Catalina Castano from the Small Business Development Center, from our TradeRoots event on Monday: