The California Chamber of Commerce wrote this excellent report about the annual DEC Conference in Las Vegas. Click on http://bit.ly/rOFzhi to read it in full.

Export Council Continues Support of National Export Initiative

 

(November 8, 2011) The National Export Initiative was at the forefront of the agenda when the National Export Council met November 2–5 in Las Vegas.Representatives of the 58 district export councils (DECs) from across the country, with a membership of 1,500 met to continue their efforts to assist leading exporters to global success. The effort to educate and train small and medium-sized businesses in exporting is the focus. Advocacy, outreach and export support comprise the DEC goals.

National Export Initiative

The National Export Initiative is President Barack Obama's call for the doubling of exports over five years—by 2015. Only 1% of U.S. companies export, so there is major room for growth, especially as exports are a bright spot in the world's economy. For further information, please see the CalChamber page on the National Export Initiative.

30th Anniversary

This meeting also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Commercial and Foreign Service of 1,430 individuals. Suresh Kumar, director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service, attended the celebration and made several presentations regarding export activities.On a separate note, continued funding of the U.S. Commercial and Foreign Service is of concern for the exporting community as Congress addresses spending priorities.

Survey on Impact of Foreign Non-Tariff Barriers

The DEC has an initiative with the U.S. Department of Commerce Market Access and Compliance Division and is now conducting a survey on barriers. If your company exports, please take a moment to complete this survey on the impact of foreign non-tariff barriers. These barriers have a negative impact on the competitiveness of U.S. exporters.  Answers to this survey will be of great assistance to DECs in fulfilling the mission to contribute to America's international competitiveness.To take the survey please click the link below or copy it into your web browser.http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=OKEELF_790773ca.

Export Control Reform

The DEC continues its focus to urge the U.S. administration to modernize the export control system. In August 2009, President Obama issued a comprehensive review on export control reform. The assessment found that the current U.S. export control system does not sufficiently reduce national security risk because its structure is overly complicated, contains too many redundancies, and tries to protect too much.  See CalChamber site: Export Control Reform

Trade Promotion Authority

Among other export policy-related discussions and considerations, the National DEC adopted a resolution resolving that Congress should grant a renewal of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to the President of the United States for the purpose of negotiating trade agreements. This will ensure that trade agreements will be negotiated in the most efficacious and expedient matter.