Clemson, South Carolina - United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk is in Clemson, South Carolina to visit Clemson University and meet with local business leaders. While in South Carolina, Ambassador Kirk will meet with professors and students at Clemson University and tour the Clemson University Advanced Materials Research Center. After the tour, Ambassador Kirk will head to Anderson, South Carolina to meet with executives and workers and tour the Glen Raven Textile Plant, where he will discuss the President's new National Export Initiative (NEI). The NEI aims to double American exports in five years and support two million American jobs - helping businesses in South Carolina grow through exports.
More than a quarter of a million U.S. firms export goods, 3,575 of them right here in South Carolina, and more than 80 percent of those were small- or medium-sized firms with fewer than 500 employees. Here in South Carolina, businesses are exporting textiles, vehicles, plastics, and paper to markets all over the globe. Those sales are building local opportunity from Greenville to Anderson and all across the Palmetto State.
Additionally, more than one-quarter (29%) of all manufacturing workers in South Carolina depend on exports for their jobs, the third-highest percentage among all fifty states. As well, export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing accounted for an estimated 9.3 percent of all private-sector employment in South Carolina, the second-highest percentage among all fifty states.
