February 22. New York City. At a meeting of the New York District Export Council, held at the law offices of McCarter & English on Park Avenue, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-14th) was the honored guest. Her purpose in attending was to honor the new members of the NYDEC and those members who were re-nominated for 3 year terms. The Congresswoman is a big supporter of the President’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and the American jobs it is helping to create.

Congresswoman Maloney handed out certificates signed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who approves all members of the DECs. Please see the pictures above to see those who received their certificates.  

January 13, 2012. The Honorable Francisco J. Sanchez was the guest of honor today at a meeting that was hosted by Alcoa at its New York offices at 390 Park Avenue. The breakfast meeting was sponsored by the Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), which is a former member of the NYDEC. The purpose of the meeting was to celebrate the second anniversary of the President’s National Export Initiative (NEI) and the fact that the numbers indicate the Initiative has been successful so far.

In the Under Secretary’s comments, he emphasized that the Administration was full speed ahead in its efforts to continue to expand exports and U.S. jobs. He indicated that it was his hope to make exporting easier for small and mid-size companies, especially those who have already done some exporting, but could easily expand their efforts to more markets. His point was emphasized by the fact that only 1% of American companies actually export.

A majority of the time on Friday was spent answering specific questions that were offered by the perhaps two dozen exporters who were in attendance who had specific hurdles that they wanted to have the Under Secretary address. Among the 30 people in attendance were NYDEC members, Helene Herman, Karen Avakian, Joe Lui and Joe Schoonmaker. Among the people from Commerce was the Director of the New York USEAC, Carmela Mammas. (See group picture.)

Are you looking for information about how the recently passed free trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama impact your business?

The International Trade Administration has developed a number of resources to help companies learn about the benefits from the recently passed trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama. Now is the time for companies to learn how the agreements impact their industry and state. Please visit www.trade.gov/fta for the latest industry opportunity reports, state impact sheets, and other useful trade‐related data: 

• Korea‐‐ http://trade.gov/fta/korea/
• Colombia‐ http://trade.gov/fta/colombia/
• Panama‐ http://trade.gov/fta/panama/ 

Want to know the tariffs your company will face with U.S. Free Trade Agreement Partners, including once the agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama go into effect?

The International Trade Agency has developed a Free Trade Agreement Tariff Tool to help manufacturers quickly find the tariff information they need. The FTA Tariff Tool has three functions: 1) a searchable database to find the tariff treatment of industrial goods covered under the U.S. FTAs; 2) creates market access reports and charts across industrial sectors or product groups; and 3) creates a snapshot of current tariff and trade trends under different U.S. FTAs. Using this free tool, any manufacturer can instantly search and see the tariffs applied on his product in the FTA partner markets.

Please visit http://export.gov/fta/ftatarifftool/  for more information including a how to guide and instructional video.  ITA will be hosting a webinar on how to use the FTA Tariff Tool for DEC members in the near future. Stay tuned for more information.

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.