Commerce turns U.S. exporter attention to programs

Commerce turns U.S. exporter attention to programs    A senior Obama administration official said the Commerce Department will do more to alert small and mid-sized companies to its export promotion programs and make them easier to use.
   'Commerce has an array of tools to help businesses at every point in the cycle — from the birth of an idea, to the standing up of the company with that idea, to finding markets once that idea has been transformed into a product or service,' said Dennis F. Hightower, deputy commerce secretary, to the Trade North America Conference in Detroit on Wednesday. 'But what we have found is that too many of these tools are left on the shelf.
   'As a consequence, many American businesses are missing out on viable opportunities — especially when it comes to accessing foreign markets,' he said.
   According to the Commerce Department, 97 percent of U.S. exporters are small and mid-sized business, but they only account for about 30 percent of the export value.
   The department has export assistance offices in more than 100 U.S. cities and commercial officers in 77 countries to help American businesses with exports.
   Hightower said, 'Many businesses are not even aware that we offer these services. Too many businesses are reluctant to even try to navigate the complex government bureaucracy.'
   At the conference, Hightower announced the department's launch of a pilot program in Detroit this fall to provide companies with a single point of contact. 'Whether a business needs help patenting a new technology or improving their manufacturing processes or getting access to a new market, they are going to have one place to go to access the full spectrum of both Commerce Department programs, as well as other federal programs available to our businesses.'
   He added that if the program succeeds it will be rolled out to other U.S. cities.
   Hightower also pointed up the administration's efforts to:
   ' Improve processing of special business visas for foreign company executives.
   ' Update the Commerce Department's aging export controls.
   ' Enhance intellectual property protections for U.S. companies abroad.
   ' Enforce the nation's free trade agreement provisions with other countries.
   For more detail about how small and mid-sized companies can increase their exports, read the August American Shipper, pages 8-13.