This morning Peter Cowhey, Senior Counselor to USTR Ambassador Ron Kirk, and Karen Mills, the Small Business Administrator, co-hosted a breakfast for a group of small business leaders attending the White House Jobs Conference. Both Cowhey and Administrator Mills focused their remarks and attention on the critical role of small businesses in generating job growth and jump-starting economic recovery.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises are by far the majority of U.S. exporters. As a group these exporters grow faster, add jobs faster, and pay higher wages. As such, expanding trade by small- and medium-sized business can be a critical tool of economic recovery.
To that end, Cowhey pointed to USTR's new efforts to bolster trade opportunities for small- and medium-sized businesses. Those efforts are aimed at empowering small- and medium-sized companies to sell more goods and services worldwide, ultimately creating more jobs here at home.
Specifically, under the new initiative USTR is:
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Requesting an investigation by the International Trade Commission that will produce a clearer picture of America's small- and medium-sized exporters, their role in generating employment and economic activity in the United States, and the potential for increased trading opportunities to benefit these businesses and their workers.
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Convening a USTR-wide working group to ensure that the lead trade agency's policymaking and enforcement efforts immediately seek to better serve small- and medium-sized enterprises.
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Collaborating with federal trade promotion agencies like the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Small Business Administration that have complementary programs for export expansion among small- and medium-sized firms.
