“MECEA” AGREEMENTS
The Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (MECEA)(22 U.S.C. §§ 2455(f) and 2458(c)), permits the International Trade Administration (ITA) and the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) to accept contributions of funds and services from firms for the purposes of furthering ITA's or BIS’s respective missions as generally defined in each bureau’s annual appropriations act (i.e., trade promotion and international trade activities for ITA, and export administration and national security activities for BIS). This authority is traditionally used in two ways: (1) as an agreement authority with for-profit companies when the two parties wish to work together on a specific project, most often a conference; and (2) as a user fee authority (to accept MECEA contributions to defray the bureau’s actual costs of providing services to specific companies). If you are interested in establishing a user fee program, please contact the General Law Division, Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Administration, at (202) 482-5391.
When MECEA is used as an agreement authority, it has various restrictions:
The essence of the statute is that it is a contribution statute, the flow of funds, goods or services must be from the company to the bureau. While, the bureau can also contribute its own resources towards a specific project, like a conference, it cannot contribute to the company itself.
The bureau cannot favor one for-profit company over another. If it is going to co-sponsor an export conference with one company, it should be ready and willing to co-sponsor export conferences with the company’s competitors.
Further, the company should not make a profit from the project.
The company should also have an independent interest in doing the project. For example, a bureau should not have a MECEA agreement with a video conferencing company, which will cover its costs from charging companies who participate in the video conference. In that case the company is not contributing anything to the bureau, it is simply providing a service for which it is being reimbursed by the fees. Other video conferencing planning organizations might be interested in an opportunity like this, and it should be done via a procurement.
NOTE: Agreements are subject to legal review and clearance in accordance with your office’s policies and procedures. For advice on whether a certain transaction should be undertaken pursuant to the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 or some other authority, contact the General Law Division, Office of the Assistant General Counsel for Administration, at (202) 482-5391.