President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed his vow to double American exports over the course of the next five years and said he plans to achieve that goal with the help of three stalled trade agreements negotiated under the Bush administration and left for dead in congress.

The National Export Initiative, announced earlier this year by the president during The State of the Union Address, is supposed to better America’s economic standing in the world through trade missions, increased loans to help American exporters, enforcing trade rules, and promoting international economic cooperation.

“The United States of America should not, cannot, will not play for second place,” he said, “We mean to compete for those jobs and we mean to win. But we’re going to have to change how we do business.”

Unfortunately, a very large portion of the plan also involves sticking with business as usual. Trade pacts with South Korea, Columbia and Panama are key pieces to the national export initiative. In addition, the president said in March that the plan also includes the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership and completion of the Doha agreement.

“This is a nation that has never shied away from the prospect of competition,” Obama said. “And we are upping our game for the playing field of the 21st century.”

But there is no such thing as true competition when the playing field is tilted decidedly in favor of one of the participants, which is exactly what those proposed trade agreements do. And unfortunately for the U.S., the field is not tilted in America’s favor.

South Korea has consistently used market barriers to keep American-made vehicles out of its market. Under the current agreement, it appears that the status quo would remain. In 2007, the U.S. sold 7,000 American vehicles in South Korea, or less than one percent of the entire market.

Panama is a well known tax haven where American multinational corporations hide their money to avoid their tax obligations in America, which costs the U.S. roughly $100 billion each year. There 350,000 foreign subsidiaries are located in the country to take advantage of the nation’s lax tax laws, usually in the form of offshore shell companies and fake headquarters.

Columbia has been beset by violence, mainly directed at unionist fighting for fair wages and better working conditions. Based on that, Columbia could turn out to be a small, Western Hemisphere version of China, in which cheap labor and little freedom among workers makes it an attractive destination for American companies.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership would provide yet another market full of extraordinarily cheap labor by knocking down the trade barriers between the U.S. and Vietnam.

“We’re working to resolve outstanding issues with the free trade agreements with those key partners, and we’re focused on submitting them as soon as possible for congressional consideration,” Obama said.

The president’s plan may in fact increase exports, possibly more than doubling them. However, many free trade critics would be quick to point out that if America’s past free trade agreements are any indication, the national export initiative will also lead to steep job losses.

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