• a self-assessment of export-readiness
• training and consulting services
• creating an export plan
• market research
• finding overseas buyers
• export finance.

By itself this is not the sort of thing that’s going to double U.S. exports in five years, but anything that brings a little more clarity to the confusion of the exporting process is a step in the right direction.

While the report doesn’t exactly toe the enviro line — it promotes expansion of nuclear power and R&D investments in “clean coal” technology — green-minded readers can only applaud its call for enhanced energy efficiency and modernization of the electric power grid to better accommodate renewable energy. Encouragingly, Roundtable President John Castellani explicitly acknowledged that a sustainable transition to a low-carbon economy must be a national priority.

TPCO America Corp. (TPCO), a subsidiary of China-based Tianjin Pipe (Group) Corp., will build the plant near Gregory in San Patricio County. This will be the largest single manufacturing investment made by a Chinese company in the United States. The facility could create as many as 600 jobs and have an estimated $2.7 billion economic impact in 10 years.

The plant will produce pipe for the oil and gas industry and is scheduled to begin producing in two and a half years.

(And a shout-out goes to trade development goddess Jen Martinez for tweeting the story.)

The Czech Republic currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, but the country’s domestic political situation is shaky. Topolánek’s government lost a vote of confidence in parliament just yesterday. Topolánek will stay on for the time being as head of a caretaker government and may yet be tapped to form a new government by President Václav Klaus. However, Klaus has long been a notorious Euroskeptic, and the rift that has grown between the two men due to Topolánek’s support for the EU’s Lisbon Treaty could easily lead to a different choice. As Obama prepares to attend the G20 summit in London and meet European leaders in Prague in April, it is an understatement to say that the Czech EU presidency is in disarray.

1. Embrace globalization
2. More and better social insurance (safety nets) and redistribution of gains from trade
3. Better international rules to protect domestic values and norms
4. Multilateral orientation
5. Leave “policy space” for developing countries while establishing broad democracy and human rights principles within the trade regime
6. Begin expanding international labor mobility, not just mobility of goods and capital

1. The sclerotic European economy is incapable of leading the world.
2. Nobody wants to invest in European companies and economies because lack of competitiveness makes them a poor bet.
3. Europe is the land of double-digit unemployment.
4. The European “welfare state” hamstrings businesses and hurts the economy.
5. Europe is likely to be held hostage to its dependence on Russia and the Middle East for most of its energy needs.

Wrong, not even close, wrong again, bzzz, thanks for trying.

Bloomberg reports that Slovakia’s GDP grew at an annual 9.4% in the second quarter with a projected 8.8% for the year.

Meanwhile Poland’s economy expanded at 6.7% in the second quarter, according to Dow-Jones Newswires.

Russia, of course, has become something of an oil sheikhdom in recent years, and even dowdy Belarus has benefited from imports of Russian oil and gas at below-market prices.

Hungary was the laggard with only 1.2% annualized growth in the second quarter, according to the Hungarian Central Statistical Office.