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Today, Smith oversees a $32 billion global transportation, business services and logistics company that serves more than 220 countries and territories with 671 aircraft , 70,000 vehicles moving more than 6 million shipments each business day.
Commerce in 2006 is clearly national and international—not local, Smith says. Because of the ease with which both business and labor can move when regulations become onerous, lawmakers should weigh the economic impact of the legislation they pass at the state level. It was Congress’s decision to deregulate surface transportation in 1980 and again in 1993 that catapulted FedEx into an international business giant. The high tech sector and the move toward “high-value added” products have been important trends in fueling the U.S. economy and making the nation a leader in global competition, Smith says.
His advice to lawmakers: Don’t over regulate. It pushes investment and production to other states or other nations. The U.S. needs to have smart regulation, free markets and reward entrepreneurship.
 As ambassador to China, former Senator Jim Sasser played a pivotal role in strengthening Sino-U.S. relations. He helped pave the way for important steps in trade and diplomacy, and facilitated Chinese membership in the World Trade Organization.
He believes that states need to develop relationships with business communities abroad. “We should welcome others, especially China, because their investment provides jobs,” he said. “They have a lot of capital.”
Sasser predicted that “China will imitate Japan.” Fearful of trade restrictions, Japan began making large, direct investments in the U.S. market in the 1980s. Sasser pointed to Nissan in Smyrna, Tennessee, and Bridgestone (Japan) in Nashville as local examples of Japanese direct investment.
 John Tanner, a congressional leader on budget issues who has worked to eliminate the national debt, says states play a crucial role in attracting foreign direct investment, but that promoting trade can be a difficult issue with the electorate.
He sounded a somber alarm that the trade deficit and the budget deficit have put the nation is on an “unsustainable path.”
“In 1996 the deficits represented just 1.5 percent of GDP,” Tanner says. “Now the combined deficits account for 7 percent of GDP.”
Smith quoted former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan who said that since 1945, real GDP in the United States has increased fivefold but the actual physical weight of what we produce in the U.S. is unchanged.
Growth in trade has made the U.S. more interdependent, according to Sasser. “Demand in China, whose GDP has grown nine-fold since 1978, has an impact on prices that we might have to pay in Illinois for some commodities,” he said.
Both Sasser and Tanner believe that the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is a threat to the free movement of people and goods. Ambassador Sasser noted that this threat is especially consequential given our dependence on petroleum.
Fred Smith agrees. “One billion dollars per day of our trade deficit results from our imports of petroleum. Our exports have actually grown vigorously in the recent past.”
The three men believe that investing in alternative energy, especially bio-diesel and ethanol, can pay a good dividend in both growth and national security. We are too reliant on oil from foreign markets in dangerous areas. The United States needs to reduce oil imports.
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