Obama’s PR machine continues to fire on all cylinders to reassure a nervous America worried about trillion-dollar deficits stretching as far as the eye can see.

With imports continuing to extend a runaway trade deficit and no serious solutions to reverse the trend, Obama has a mountain to climb and little hope of stemming the crisis.

In an open letter to Timothy Geithner this week, trade2save urged the Administration to provide tax incentives to retailers offering to buy and sell used products to consumers.

Chris Whittome at trade2save writes “The amount of products coming into the U.S compared to exports is staggering.  Any attempts at cost cutting or reducing government spending pales to insignificance if we can’t get the trade deficit under control.”

Encouraging pre-owned could reverse a worrying trend

The argument put forward by trade2save is simplistic, but none the less compelling - “too many products come into the country compared to what goes out. If what came in was more readily reused and resold, the demand for imports would be significantly reduced.

$200 Billion a year on consumer electronics

Chris Whittome adds “Each American spends on average more than $1200 a year on consumer electronics. If half this amount was bought pre-owned locally, the trade deficit would shrink by $200 Billion a year. The money saved would likely divert to either locally produced goods and/or reduce consumer borrowing.”

More tax revenue for the local and federal government

Local and federal government would also benefit from increases in sales tax revenue as more pre-owned electronics were traded in the local economies at the retail level.

A greener more efficient economy

Tackling ewaste is a primary objective of the Obama Administration’s environmental policy. “Because buying a used product lengthens its life, encouraging pre-owned would also be in harmony with the Administration’s effort to tackle the explosion of e-waste and its links to pollution and global warming.”

Next month, trade2save.com will be launching an online trading portal where customers will be able to sell their pre-owned electronics to them, and also buy used ones with a satisfaction guaranty and 1 year warranty. “We hope that one day soon, buying a pre-owned electronics product will become as common and worry free as buying a certified pre-owned car from a dealership.”