国际英语新闻：Obama says U.S. export goal achievable with stepped-up efforts

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the administration will endeavor to double the U.S. exports of goods and services over the next five years as promised to spur hiring when the world's largest economy was struggling to regain its footing and reduce unemployment rate.

"The more American companies export, the more they produce. The more they produce, the more people they hire," Obama said when meeting U.S. President's Export Council.

Obama announced in March that he would re-launch the President' s Export Council to serve as the principal national advisory committee on international trade.

"We are six months into what's going to be a five-year-long process. And despite some strong economic headwinds this year, we' ve already seen some progress," he added.

Obama held that if the United States could increase its exports by 14 or 15 percent each year, then the nation could meet its set export goal.

U.S. goods export added 3.4 percent to 316.1 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of this year, although its goods imports in the same period expanded by a even bigger margin at 6.3 percent to 485.7 billion U.S. dollars, reported the U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Thursday.