V.1: National Export Initiative (NEI)

Pursue trade agreements that are balanced, ambitious and improve market access for U.S. workers, firms, farmers and ranchers

Other Information:

The NEI focuses on three key areas: * A more robust effort needs to be made to expand trade advocacy in all its forms, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. This includes educating U.S. companies about overseas opportunities, creating direct connections between U.S. companies and new customers, and advocating more effectively on behalf of their interests. * Access to credit needs to be improved, focusing on small- and medium-sized businesses with an interest in exporting. * International trade laws need to be rigorously enforced to help remove barriers that prevent U.S. companies from obtaining free and fair access to foreign markets. Additionally, NEI involves the creation of an Export Promotion Cabinet that will report to the President and involve top leaders from federal agencies able to contribute to this effort, e.g., the Departments of Commerce, State, Treasury and Agriculture; the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative; the Small Business Administration, and the Export Import Bank. Each agency in the Export Promotion Cabinet will be responsible for submitting a detailed plan to the President outlining how it will strengthen the nation’s ability to export. Those plans will be integrated into a cohesive strategy under the NEI. The President’s budget for ITA for FY2011 includes a 20 percent increase to help achieve the goals of the NEI. If appropriated, these new resources will allow ITA to: * Recruit as many as 328 additional trade experts to serve as advocates for U.S. companies; * Assist more than 23,000 clients to begin or increase exporting in FY2011; * Put special focus on increasing by 50 percent the number of small- and medium-sized businesses exporting to more than one market over the next five years; * Increase the presence of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service in emerging high-growth markets such as China, India and Brazil; and * Develop a comprehensive strategy to identify market opportunities in fast-growing sectors such as environmental goods and services, renewable energy, healthcare and biotechnology. Through the NEI, the government will continue its efforts to remove barriers that prevent U.S. companies from obtaining open and fair access to foreign markets, to combat unfair tariff and non-tariff barriers, and to address practices that blatantly harm U.S. companies. The Administration will pursue trade agreements that are balanced, ambitious and improve market access for U.S. workers, firms, farmers and ranchers. Commerce, through the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee (TPCC), leads the Administration’s trade promotion efforts and will help operationalize the NEI. This interagency group, which is chaired by the Secretary of Commerce, establishes trade promotion priorities to expand trade and create jobs for Americans. The TPCC provides a platform for Commerce to advance a government-wide agenda for trade promotion and to directly engage the heads of other TPCC agencies. The Export Promotion Cabinet will coordinate with the TPCC to carry out the NEI. Commerce will develop a robust online presence to inform the public of progress of this important initiative and solicit citizen input.

Stakeholder(s):

• U.S. Workers


• U.S. Firms


• U.S. Farmers


• U.S. Ranchers

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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