Third Way has a new report out on How Export Barriers Cost America Jobs, with a specific focus on “non-tariff barriers.” It’s a thoughtful report, and it echoes many points the Chamber made last May in our State of World Trade. Here is their section on trade agreements:

There’s a new global arms race—for trade deals. As President Obama said recently, “if America sits on the sidelines while other nations sign trade deals, we will lose the chance to create jobs on our shores.” We must pursue new trade agreements with urgency. Our foreign competitors fully understand the economic and employment benefits of new trade deals, and they are actively negotiating a raft of attractive new market-opening agreements for themselves.

The number of free trade agreements has exploded over the past decade, and these agreements cover an ever-increasing portion of global trade. Almost 400 of these trade deals will be in force by the end of 2010, with many more in development. America’s major international competitors—including China, the EU, India, Japan and Korea—are all aggressively seeking new trade deals with major trading partners. Countries in the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region have been particularly active in seeking better access and fairer treatment for their exports. In the meantime, America has largely been sitting out of the game. And in this game, standing still means falling behind. This places our companies and workers at severe risk of losing new—and current—export business to foreign competitors whose countries are smashing down barriers to their exports.

At the same time they are seeking fairer treatment for their exports, foreign governments continue to maintain and create obstacles to U.S. exports. These barriers will present increasing disadvantages for our exports as limits on other countries’ exports continue to fall away. Our foreign competitors seem intent on building shiny new expressways to speed their own exports, while continuing to throw up new speed bumps to trade from the United States. America can’t continue to go along for an increasingly bumpy ride.