Medtech Industry Represented on Manufacturing Council

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke has tapped Stryker Corp. CEO Stephen P. MacMillan for the 2010 Manufacturing Council.

MacMillan, who also is Stryker’s president and chairman, will serve as the medical device and diagnostics industry representative on the 25-member Council. Created in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the organization advises the commerce secretary on the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector as well as on government policies and programs that affect American manufacturers. The Commerce Department recently re-chartered the group, increasing its members to 25 (from 15) in order to represent a more diverse cross-section of the nation’s industries.

Many of the companies named to the Council are representing their respective sectors for the first time. Some of the firms comprising the Council include DemeTech Corporation, a Miami, Fla.-based developer of surgical sutures and blades; industrial adhesives developer Dymax Corporation of Torrington, Conn.; First Solar Inc. of Tempe, Ariz.; and Sealaska Corporation, a Juneau, Alaska-based company with investments in forest products, construction aggregates, machining and fabrication, environmental remediation, information technology, plastics injection molding and manufacturing, global logistics, wood products and financial markets.

Ex-Officio members of the Council include Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy; Hilda L. Solis, U.S. Secretary of Labor; and Timothy F. Geithner, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.

“Steve will be a strong voice on the Manufacturing Council, helping to ensure that global manufacturing policies support rather than inhibit American medical innovation,” Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) President and CEO Stephen J. Ubl said of MacMillan’s appointment. “The device and diagnostics industry is an important source of stable, well-paying jobs and we can play a critical role in helping to achieve the President’s goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years.”

Achieving the President’s goal is simple, at least in theory, anyway—increase exports and decrease imports. Applying such a basic theory during one of the worst recessions on record, however, has proven challenging; still, the council believes it is possible. In a letter last December to Locke, Council Chairman Fred Keller outlined several strategies for increasing exports, including enforcing rules-based trading with competitors, decreasing the nation’s oil imports and developing alternative energy resources. “The time for leadership on reducing oil imports is now,” Keller wrote in his letter. “If as a country we wait for the market to react to these effects, the remedies may actually be out of reach.”

According to the Commerce Dept., the manufacturing sector accounts for 12 million U.S. jobs and the production of $1.6 trillion in manufactured products, which represents 18 percent of the world’s manufactured goods. AdvaMed claims the medical technology industry supports nearly 2 million jobs throughout the U.S. Medical innovation and job creation has played a critical role in economic policy over the last several years, particularly as the job market worsened and unemployment rates skyrocketed. The recession has hit the manufacturing sector especially hard, slaughtering 1.5 million positions over the last year. Since 2004, the manufacturing sector has lost a total of 2.4 million jobs and 14,000 companies, according to industry statistics.

“As a country, we need to promote job creation in the private sector,” MacMillan said after his appointment to the Council. “I believe that this Council can have a positive impact on policies that will spur greater growth.”

Previous Manufacturing Councils have discussed energy costs and alternatives, sustainable manufacturing, tax credits for research and development, market access as well as a variety of other topics. In upcoming meetings, credit access and ways to best allocate resources from the American Investment & Recovery Act most likely will be addressed.