President Obama’s 10-day trip to Asia last November wasn’t all work and no play. At the end of a four-country tour that included India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Japan, the President found time to mingle with the locals and enjoy some culture while visiting the Great Buddha of Kamakura outside Tokyo.
The business end of the trip had a much more official purpose: shoring up our relationships with some of the fastest growing markets in the world. These Asian economies represent big buyers of U.S. goods, so developing and maintaining partnerships in that part of the world is a critical part of the President’s goal to double our exports by 2015.