"We thought that [U.S. Government]
advocacy was more for the corporate giants
you read about in the paper. We learned first,
that these services are available to small
companies, and second, that they really work."
-- Quote by Jeff Tuel, Global Atmospherics,
Inc.
The quotation above was first published in
the February 2000 issue of ITA's monthly magazine,
Export America. (Click to see the full
article, "Eyes
of the Storm," by Jake Bright.) Its
premise expresses a common misconception too
frequently held by the owners and/or officers
of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
in the United States. Contrary to that notion,
the Advocacy Center actively promotes and encourages
the filing of advocacy requests by the SME business
community.
Specifically, the Center seeks to broaden and
deepen the U.S. exporter base by marshaling
USG resources on behalf of SMEs competing for
commercial transactions abroad. In fact, the
USG advocacy network, within which the Advocacy
Center acts as the coordinating hub, assisted
28 SMEs win contracts since June of 2002. The
total value of these successes amounted to $637
million. USG Advocacy is enlisted by SMEs to
ensure: (a) access to foreign market opportunities,
(b) transparency of procurement procedures,
and (c) fairness in competitive evaluations.
In FY 2004, the Advocacy Center launched a number
of educational outreach initiatives geared to
SMEs.
- The Center seeks to expand its outreach
campaign to SMEs in an effort to spread knowledge
about—and participation in—the USG
advocacy program to new-to-export and to new-to-market
SME beneficiaries.
- The Center will actively promote its SME
objectives to larger corporate advocacy clients
in an effort to encourage their future employment
of U.S.-based SMEs as suppliers and/or subcontractors
in those transactions for which they seek
USG advocacy support.
- The Center will refer SME advocacy applications
to appropriate export financing agencies (e.g.,
Ex-Im Bank, OPIC, TDA) in an effort to leverage
USG support for SME client firms. As a rule,
the financing agencies welcome opportunities
to assist SMEs by furnishing Letters of Interest
(in the financing of projects/ventures/procurements/etc.)
which can subsequently provide a competitive
advantage to SMEs as they pursue commercial
opportunities abroad.
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