The Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration helps small businesses succeed in the global economy. Here are seven ways we can help your company.
Get Export Counseling
We offer hands-on export counseling to help you through every stage of the export process through our Trade Information Center (TIC) and our nationwide network of 105 U.S. Export Assistance Centers (USEACs). The TIC, with its toll-free number (1-800-USA-TRADE), is the first stop for small businesses and the gateway to all U.S. government export programs. Get basic how-to-export counseling, program referrals, documentation help, regulatory requirements, market research, and country information.
The USEACs located in your community, offer one-on-one export counseling to identify best markets and potential buyers or business partners, arrange overseas meetings, and obtain customized market analysis. USEACs often combine the resources of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Small Business Administration, the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Foreign Agricultural Service, and state and local export assistance providers.
Obtain Country- and Industry-Specific Help
We provide country-specific assistance on commercial regulations and practices, opportunities and best prospects in individual markets, and tariffs and customs procedures through:
- The Trade Information Center,
- The Business Information Service for the Newly Independent States (BISNIS),
- The Central and Eastern Europe Business Information Center, (CEEBIC)
- and 160 Commercial Service offices abroad
Our Manufacturing and Services Industry Officers provide information and analyses on foreign market conditions and opportunities, industry trends, and competitiveness by industry sector. This expertise if found nowhere else inside or outside of the U.S. government.
Identify Your Buyers and Markets
Working hand-in-hand with the private sector, we offer over 80 trade missions and more than 500 other promotions annually, including trade fairs, catalogue events, and international buyer shows that assist several thousand (mostly small) businesses enter new markets.
Our Gold Key Matching Service pairs U.S. firms with pre-qualified, pre-screened international companies interested in becoming business partners. In addition, our International Partner Search produces reports on up to five qualified overseas partners, and our Flexible Market Research provides individualized market research pertaining to your products or services.
We make it easier for your small business to use these and other services by offering many of them “virtually.”
Compete for Foreign Procurements
Our Advocacy Center marshals the resources of 19 U.S. government agencies in the Trade Promotion Coordinating Committee and U.S. officials stationed at our embassies and consulates abroad. The Center helps to ensure that when your company participates in international tenders, procurements, or investment competitions that you and all U.S. business interests are treated fairly, and that all proposals are evaluated on their technical and commercial merits.
Make Sure You Have Access to Markets
Our market access officers address issues of unfair trade practices and barriers encountered by U.S. firms in particular markets. The Trade Compliance Center (TCC) helps U.S. exporters facing trade barriers and ensures that foreign countries comply with their trade commitments. U.S. exporters can contact the TCC’s On-Line Trade Complaint Hotline to report a suspected violation of a trade agreement or to report market access problems.
Make Your Voice Heard
The Global Diversity Initiative works closely with industry in the formulation of international trade policy and represents the trade policy views of small business in multilateral for a, such as the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. You can have a direct voice by participating in on of our Trade Policy Advisory Committees.
Look for Other Sources of Technical Assistance
Our 301 Alert Service e-mails early warnings to small business that register with us to help them react to potential increases in U.S. import duties in response to unfair trade practices.
When small businesses fear that unfairly traded imports are hurting their domestic industries, we offer a Pre-Petition Counseling Program to assist them with the process of filing antidumping and countervailing duty petitions, evaluating whether there is sufficient evidence to file a petition, and reviewing draft petitions.
Our Export Trade Certificate of Review Program allows small businesses to cooperate in many areas of exporting such as sharing costs of market research, participation fees for trade shows, etc. Currently over 5,000 U.S. firms operate under this antitrust protection program.