A New York Times article by Floyd Norris (February 12, 2011, B3) describes the composition of US exports in 2010 – with around $ 1 trillion in exports by the manufacturing sector and around $ 0.55 trillion in exports by the services sector.  The US export performance in manufacturing makes the country the second largest manufacturing exporter after China. With President Obama’s goal of doubling US exports by 2013 and the growth in US exports by 16.6 % since 2009 suggesting the country is on track to achieve this goal, the results suggest that US manufacturing will have to be a key ingredient of export growth.    What specific steps will need to be taken to make US manufacturing more globally competitive beyond a weak US currency ? Can the complex global supply chains of OEMs enable quick export growth in response to adjustments in the US regulations ? Will worries about intellectual property leakage hasten the “return Manufacturing to the US” phenomenon ?