Washington - Asian economies are posing an unprecendented challenge to US competitiveness, a top American business lobby warned on Wednesday, seeking firm government steps to secure the nation's leadership.
The US Chamber of Commerce, representing three million firms, said although the United States was strong and outperforming virtually all of the major economies in the world, it has failed to address this challenge.
"We have a good economy today - the kind of economy that much of the rest of the world only dream about," the chamber's president, Thomas Donohue, said at a news conference outlining the group's priority issues for 2005.
"Yet, we must also recognise that our competitive position is being challenged as never before," he said.
"The rapidly developing economies of China, India and East Asia are becoming major players in cutting edge industries."
They are catching up with the US parricularly in technology, business services and high-end manufacturing, he said.
Aside from Asia, Donohue said, the US needed to be wary of the European Union, which was consolidating and enlarging its economic power while aggressively expanding its regulatory impact in areas from anti-trust policy to food production to climatic change.
Donohue warned that the US was driving companies, capital, and jobs out of the country due to excessive legal, health, tax, and energy costs as well as with "abusive" corporate governance rules.
In addition, he said, the US society was aging, education system was falling short and faced serious shortages of workers due to immigration and visa problems.
More engineers and science majors
On the other hand, Donohue said, Asian economies were stepping up economic growth, beefing up technology, boosting training programs and improving education quality.
"They are consuming more of the world's resources, attracting more of its capital, and producing more engineers and science majors than the US," he said.
Donohue called for "strong action now to create a more competitive American economy and secure our nation's leadership in the 21st century".
He sought removal of barriers that made it too expensive to create and keep jobs in the US, a "fair and open" playing field for American companies and workers in the global marketplace, reforms in the tax, regulatory, health and retirement systems, and a beefing up of the country's physical infrastructure.
Donohue said US companies lost an estimated $250bn a year due to intellectual property theft, counterfeiting and piracy - crimes largely blamed on China.
The chamber also expressed concern over the increasing number of what it called trade "cartels" in Asia and sought a quick end to negotiations for the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The pact could be an answer to challenges posed by Asia, it said.
In Asia, the 10 Southeast Asian nations, China, Japan, South Korea and India are setting up "building blocks" for a giant free trade area covering nearly three billion people.
"For the US to compete with the developing cartels in Asia and with a strong EU that is just enlarged by 10 countries, it is essential for us to eventually have a free trade agreement of the Americas to build our own cartel," Donohue said.